Written by Ronnie Teasdale:
I am writing this on the plane, returning from a weekend in Cancun, Mexico. Today I did a workout on the beach with no equipment. And I wanted to cover a very important subject: Just because you are away from the gym does not mean you cannot do CrossFit.
One of CrossFit’s concepts is: Constantly varied functional exercises performed at high intensities. What better way to constantly vary exercise than to do it in different arenas.
Today’s WOD for myself:
Run a mile barefoot on the beach until I came across a peace of coral I could pick up
100 Thrusters as fast as I can with this peace of coral
Run back a mile to the hotel
This workout can be done virtually everywhere with any object.
Here are some other ideas for exercises.
-The ladder for pools can make perfect parrelletes, obviously this can be dangerous if they are wet, so be careful
-Two chairs put 16 inches apart can also be used as hand rests for L-sits
-Chairs make good box jumps
-Chairs, tables, bikes, book bags, or anything you can pick up can be used for side raises
-Dumbbells can be made out of empty milk gallons filled with water
-Broom sticks, telephone cords or jump ropes can sub for flexibility exercises that we use the PVC pipe for in the gym
-Play grounds are awesome places to go workout
-Pullups can usually be done at the hotel, in the basement of a house, off a tree branch, decks there is place to do pullups everywhere, you just have to look,… plumbing lines work nice, but make sure to test before putting all your weight on them
-Clean and Jerks can be done with luggage, and every thing you can find. A good sub for picking up rocks, book bags or round objects with your hands is to lean all the way down and grasp the object with your forearms, much like you would an atlas stone, and roll it up your body before getting underneath it with your hands for the press.
-Swings (kettlebell style) can be done with anything you can wrap your hands around
Sample WODS:
#1: One Hundred _________ and burpees
Do 100 of something
and
on every minute on the minute do 5 burps.
-For this WOD if you have a gym a good exercise to do is Dumbbell squat clean thrusters. Pick any two dumbbells and start doing 100, have a clock or a timer near by, do 5 burpees at every minute. The burps are mandatory every minute, but the WOD ends when you reach 100 of the desired exercise. Examples of exercises would be: thrusters, squat clean thrusters, wall balls, deadliest, pullups, jerks, box jumps, lunges, 10 m runs back and forth, handstand pushups, rope climbs….with any type of objects. My favorite is squat clean thrusters, because they work the entire body.
#2 Distance
-Every where you go you can go for a run, or some other activity. If you don’t usually run in your exercise program, then this is the best time to do it. There is nothing that will make the run go by faster than doing it in new territory, especially if you are on vacation at a beautifully landscaped area.
#3 3 rounds of 5-6 X 10-15
If you are in a hotel gym, a house, or a forest, pick 6 exercises do 10-15 reps of each and do three rounds for time, or not for time,…..whatever suits you.
Example,…. say you are on a hike and want a quick workout. I am pretty sure you can find a tree with branches and a rock, and something to pick up
Exercises:
-10 Handstand Pushups against tree (or sub a one minute cumulative hold upside down against the tree)
-Squat down with a rock the size of your head in one hand, as you stand push rock above head, and to the other hand as you descend down into the next squat X 16
-15 burpee jumps to a tree branch 18 inches above your reach
-10 seconds hug a tree 5 seconds rest X 10 (can sub any type of body weight stationary hold for this: plank, table top, just think yogaish)
-Find something big: bigger rock, or a branch, and do squat clean thrusters and throw the object as high as you can X 10
There should be no reason one cannot fit in a workout if they are away from the gym for work or play. Vacations also lend a lot of opportunities to do activities that are not commonly done in real life like: skiing, hiking, big fish fishing, swimming, etc. One’s body will benefit from these activities. These activities will also give you another option besides just going out and getting plastered every night and day. And the workouts will remind you to eat healthy. On vacations I eat a ton, but it is still all paleo,… I usually splurge on the fruit and the portion size, I do not comprise the qualities of food I get. Eating paleo anywhere is another blog post though…
Altitude is also a luxury that traveling can provide, we live near the coast at 0 altitude, training at altitude is another way to vary your training modalities. So although you may be going half way across the world for business you can still use CrossFit to balance your energy and attitude, focus your intellectual output, and boost your emotional fortitude. Traveling shouldn’t make you a different person, with different habits, traveling is just you in a different place.
Now on to Monday’s festivities:
Warm up:
Run around the block with a dynamax ball.
Run around the block with nothing in your hands
3 rounds
squat jumps X 10
Burpees X 10
Skin the cat X1
Inverted hang lowerings as slow as possible X 3
WOD 7-5-10: Odd Object One Hundred squat clean thrusters and burpees
Grab something (other than a barbell) and do 100 squat clean thrusters, on the minute every minute do 5 burpees.
-The burpees are mandatory every minute. Although you are trying to get this done as fast as possible (so you don’t have to do more burpees), you do not have to do any squat clean thrusters in a given minute.
Your choices include but are not limited to:
sandbag
tire
med ball
rock
one dumbbell
weight plate
milk carton
slosh tube
bosu ball
ploy box
Reva
piece of whatever you find behind the curtain
kettle bell
your car’s spare tire
Post WOD:
15 minutes of handstand walking.
-If you have never practice front rolls, then take out the blue mats and do some tumbling for 15 minutes.
And remember, no class Mon morning
CrossFit Mean Streets
Downtown Los Angeles
ahahahahahaha Reva…