Change was certainly in the air on Tuesday. Instead of upper body strength, it was met-con madness. Instead of breezy, Spring weather, it was 80% humidity. High humidity = sticky floors, so it must be time for some plate pushes.
Working with a partner, and with only one person working at a time, divide the reps amongst each other however you see fit, although the preference was for an even division of labor. Each pair must complete all the reps of one exercise before moving on to the next.
1 plate push was equal to a trip to 1/2 court and back, although a few of the craftier pairs split the reps into 1/2 court trips (so P1 did a 1/2 court push, and then P2 did the other 1/2 court push to complete the rep – very smart).
So, yes, it was somewhat humid on Tuesday. However, all jokes regarding the weather aside, Tuesday night is a great reminder to all of us of the need to hydrate properly as the summer weather starts to roll in. A few quick facts for ya:
Human’s are 45-70% water.
Muscle tissue is 75% water.
A human can survive 4x longer without food than without water.
Fluid loss as a % of bodyweight:
1% = Elevation of core body temperature, impaired performance
3% = Significantly impaired performance
5% = Cardiovascular Strain
7% = Decreased ability to regulate heat
10% = Heat Stroke, unconsciousness
At 90 degrees and 40% humidity, the heat index (what the temperature feels like to the body) is roughly 92;
At 90 degrees and 60% humidity, the heat index is 100 degrees;
At 90 degrees, and 80% humidity, the index is 112 degrees.
The problem with higher humidity, besides making us feel hotter and more uncomfortable, is that we actually become hotter. Our bodies first line of defense to getting hot is to sweat – as air absorbs the moisture from sweat, we feel cooler. Except, when it’s humid, the air, already saturated with water, doesn’t absorb the sweat-moisture. Thus, we don’t feel cooler, and our bodies have to compensate by working harder and harder to try and cool us down. Of course, when sweating doesn’t work to cool us down and we continue to heat up, overheating results, which causes loss of the water and chemicals that the body needs. Overheating, or more commonly, heat exhaustion, can lead to dehydration and chemical imbalances within the body.
Outside of activity, you should be consuming half your body weight in ounces of water a day. For more on that – and since everyone’s been digging the inclusion of videos lately – I refer you to coach Max Wunderle ‘s (of CrossFit Endurance/Tri-Max Fitness) take on the subject:
With that, drink up, and we’ll see everyone back on Thursday (in which, I swear, there are no planned plate-pushes…)
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Just read this this current Washingtonian magazine article about CrossFit (and Coach gets a few quotes in).
I was sore still from Sunday and this was definitely a tough workout!
Thanks to Erica for being my parnter (love the picture).
We used a 14lb med ball and a 35lb plate.
I am drinking lots of water today. I think I usually at drink least half my body weight in ounces of water.
I was thinking a lot about yesterday’s workout all last night and I feel like the opening blog picture sums it up. The workout was grueling in a deliciously awful, yet fabulous way. I wouldn’t mind every class to be like that (no comment necessary, SBV, on my love for endurance workouts), and yet even I who loves long workouts felt close to throwing up yesterday. Still awesome.
But, my favorite part of the workout was that I got to do it with a teammate. Naturally, most people know that Amelia is a special friend of mine, but yesterday’s workout really required teamwork in all ways. It required that we support each other, encourage each other, push each other, etc. I think I hit a wall around the third round of PPs and she stepped right up to do two in a row so that I could rest and then finish my part after. And vice versa. It was not about finishing first, but rather that we worked together and suffered together (hence the pic). It’s one of the special and unique aspects of CrossFit, the importance of teammwork. So Amelia, thank you! And same goes to the other twosomes I saw, even people that didn’t know each other. 🙂
When can we do that again??
The wallball shots felt good. Everything after that was a complete shit-show. I can’t believe the impact plate pushes had on my other movements. My body was completely zapped of energy for push-ups. I could barely hang on the pull-up bar, let alone crank out pull-ups. Thanks to Ben for carrying our team on the bodyweight movements. I gave it my best, but just couldn’t get any air into my lungs to recover after each plate push.
And, Ethan: in case you’re wondering, yes, you beat us last night by about a minute. Enjoy it while it lasts.
this was so cool – loved it!
As awful as I felt during and after this workout, I really enjoyed it. I worked with Julia for the workout. We used a 16lb wall ball and got a little smack talk from Chris for not using a 20lb one. The wallballs went well even though we Had to break them to sets of 5 after the first 20. We also used a 25kg plate for the PP. Everyone knows these are one of my favorite exercises. From the beginning we saved our energy by each taking 1/2 a push at a time. I definitely felt slower as the workout went on with the PP but with this method neither of us had to stop mid-push.
I was not prepared for the extreme pressure in my head towards the end of the workout and sometime after. I felt like my head was going to explode and that made me nauseous as well. I am pretty sure that was a result of not being well hydrated. I will have to be more careful in the future.
Everyone did such a great job during this workout and I thought it was fun. It seems weird to me that I now enjoy these long grinding workouts.
Thanks to April for being such a gracious teammate on this one. We used 14lbs for the wall balls and 25lbs for the plate pushes.
This was a tough one for me. The plate pushes did me in. I just had a breakdown on the round of 8 after the pushups. Unfortunately, because I was just spent, we didn’t finish up the round of 10. After 2 years of CrossFit this was seriously the closest I came to losing the contents of my stomach after a WOD. I was pretty wobbly for a while after I got home. I used some mint from my garden in water to pull myself back together. I’m finishing this WOD whenever we do this again!
I tried doing some ankle mobility work after class but I was too dizzy. I’m going to be sure to do that tonight.
Looking forward to tomorrow.
Wow, I totally misread that water figure at first — I was thinking that I have to drink 70# of water a day. Hm.
For some reason I was feeling really energetic yesterday — probably either the low pollen or the lobster roll for lunch. Whatever it was, I am so grateful to my body for the extra energy.
I worked with Andy and Sanaa to form the only team of 3. We scaled everything up except the last set of 8 and 10 plate pushes, so in total we ended up doing 3 less plate pushes each than everyone else,.
I’m sure the extra rest from the third person helped a lot, but I still feel great about this workout. We used the 8# medicine ball, and I was able to string together 15 wall balls. I’ve only been able to do maybe 5 at most before. The plate pushes at 25# felt surprisingly good, too. Sanaa and I agreed we should use 35# next time.
I agree with Erica — again! :o)
Off-topic: R.I.P. Chuck Brown.
Oh I so wish I had been there for this workout! Sounds killer but amazing and I definitely enjoy a long metcon! Hope to see you guys tonight!