5/22 – Crossfit CBD Melbourne

While in Melbourne Cam and I checked out a second crossfit box.  I knew from following Liz’s blog that Crossfit CBD had a pretty unique set up.  They are located on the rooftop of a building in the heart of Chinatown in Melbourne’s CBD (central business district).  We had to pre-register for their class which meant that we couldn’t make it Tuesday (full) and instead caught Wednesday’s session.  I think I’m thankful for that as Tuesday had 800m runs in it which meant also running down their 100 odd stairs (it’s kind of mean that they have signs on the way up that tell you ‘how many more to go’ – like you need the reminder… haha).

It was another different class model.  The warm-up was listed on the board and it was up to you to get it done when you got there.  I think you had 10 minutes or so to do it (from the start of class time).

Warm-up

2 rounds

45 double unders

30 walking lunges

15 push-ups

The we went through the WOD movements and started it off.

WOD

EMOM21

Cycle through

22 One arm KB Swings (11 each arm alternating Russian swings) (24/16kg)

11 Box Jumps (32/24”)

11 Ring Dips

Rx/Rx/Red Band

This was a fun one.  It was similar to a longer tabata as the movements took from 30-40 seconds to finish then you had a little rest and moved on.  I enjoyed the KB swings as we do this often enough at Southern and the box jumps were solid.  I managed to rebound most of them and it wasn’t until the last round that the cold weather caught up to me and I tweaked my calf a little.  It didn’t stop me however which in hindsight and painful walking the next two days was probably not a smart idea.

I scaled the ring dips quick significantly as these quite often screw up my shoulder.  I also think I kept the rings a bit further away from my sides as a way to compensate for my shoulder issues (I know, not the best idea but still).  I think it was for this reason that my biceps hurt so much afterward and not my triceps.  It was a great session though.  Fun to roll through with a new crowd of people on an outdoor roof in the heart of Melbourne during the working week.

As I mentioned, Crossfit CBD is on the roof of a building.  It’s half sheltered and half exposed and completely open to the elements.  It was a little bit wet and mostly cold when we were there though there was daylight creeping through the grey sky.  I can’t imagine the dedication it would take for some to get there for the early morning or late night classes when it’s dark in the middle of winter.  It adds to the atmosphere though and definitely makes you stronger. 

Some photos from Crossfit CBD.

And some drunken Birtday Handstands just for fun... at least these were against a wall unlike my attempt to handstand walk in the middle of the city street that was more like a crash and burn...

5/20-5/21 - Crossfit Victoria

Catching up…

The second half of May was a bit of a blur with a trip to Melbourne, Regionals action and Cam moving out.  Training took a bit of a backseat but it was necessary and was a good break to just indulge – in food – namely bacon and beer and too many carbs.  Good times.

There were however a few WODs during the trip.  Two visits to Crossfit Victoria It was great to get different coaching perspectives – sometimes even the same cues but with different words and to see how different boxes operate.

Cam and I attended to sessions at Crossfit Victoria and both were WODs that were more lifting focused than metcons.  As a group we warmed up and then on both occasions had a set period of time to go through some movements on our own in a bit of a rotation to get us ready for the WODs.

5/20 – Push Presses at Crossfit Victoria

I don’t remember in detail all the dynamic stretching that we did on this one but I do remember at the end of it all that we partnered up and for 1 minute had to be on all fours – knees could not touch the ground and in essentially what was a chaotic bear crawl we faced off with our partners and tried to slap their hands.  Every touch resulted in an immediate pushup penalty for our partner.  It was really hard not to laugh while doing this – I think it’d make a great addition to fun time Fridays. 

Pre-WOD was a 5 minute cycle of 10 Russian KB swings at a heavy weight (I think I picked 24kg as this was the only ‘heavy’ option once everyone else had grabbed theirs) followed by 30 seconds of our choice of active rest (box jumps, burpees, running on the spot, skipping).  The clock just ticked away.  It was good fun and a different approach. 

WOD

Push Press 5 x 2

I *think* I got up to 42.5 for a few rounds though I can’t quite remember as it’s been a while.  I do remember a new PR so that was exciting.  It was also good practice to not re-dip a la push jerk too.  I enjoyed it and it was fun partnering up with a couple of girls that I just met and seeing them push their limits too. 

5/21 – Backsquats and Burpees at Crossfit Victoria

It was a last minute decision to rush over and catch this class at noon.  Thankfully Cam’s cousin Christian lives a minute from the box so a quick change and a dash over and we were set.  Unfortunately though we arrived 2 minutes after the class had started and were taxed with the burpee penalty.  Now at Southern it’s a fair 3 burpees per minute but here we got the West Coast inflated amount of 25.  Ouch.  So off Cam and I went with our burpees.  I’m not sure if the Coach was serious when he threw them at us but was probably impressed that we got right to it.  We laughed.

Pre-WOD

5 or 10 minutes (can’t recall) of squat holds and leg swings and hip stretches – basically rotating through the movements that would get us limbered up to start squatting.

WOD

For 15 minutes (10 rounds)

Every 90 seconds complete one round of:

3 back squats (at approx. 5RM)

6 burpees

45kg

I partnered up with Laura on this one and she was going with 45kg.  Given that I hadn’t worked out much and was exhausted from the weekends escapades of excessive drinking and not sleeping, staying out til the sun (almost) came up and hours of endless walking through the days I was cool with this.  I knew it was light for me but a good time to focus on form.

I enjoyed this format.  The burpees were quick but also left your heart racing – or perhaps that was just because I was trying to race Cam on them each and every time – I would beat him off of the squats and he would catch me on the burpees.  I think I managed to finish just fractions in front of him until the last round where he *finally* realized it was a competition (it really wasn’t) and kicked my ass.  Ha!

Enjoyed our time here and met a lot of cool people that I’m happily going to keep in touch with.  It’s reasons like this that I love the Crossfit world, it truly is an international and welcoming community.