Check out this behemoth Joel and I tackled today:

“Barbara”:

Five rounds, each for time of:

  • 20 Pull-ups
  • 30 Push-ups
  • 40 Sit-ups
  • 50 Squats (body weight)

For those following at home – that’s 100 pull-ups, 150 pushups, 200 sit-ups, and 250 squats. A lot of people look at the CrossFit workouts and shy away or are amazed by what’s required for these workouts. My routine would not be the same without CrossFit, so I thought I’d put together a few tips to help you tackle these workouts, and hopefully incorporate some of the elements into your routine.

Don’t get overwhelmed

The biggest mistake you can make with a workout like this is to approach it with a can’t-do attitude. Your never going to get anywhere if you second-guess yourself. You. Can. Get. It. Done.

Break it into chunks (divide & conquer)

In Computer Science, we learn about problem solving through divide and conquer. Which is the basic process of dividing a big problem into several easier to solve problems. This is how I approach these workouts and find it works well. Can’t do 20 pull-ups in a row? How about 4 sets of 5? When it comes to the end of these things, I’m sometimes doing 20 sets of 1… I also find that your stamina really gets put to the test in these as sometimes you have to break them apart. Otherwise the next set around you’ll find you can’t even do 5.

Do what you can (weight, reps, etc)

If you can’t do the reps – go to failure. This means doing as many reps as you can do, until you physically can’t complete 1 more rep.

If you can’t do the weight – drop it. Do as many as you can with the weight prescribed (assuming you’re comfortable enough to know you’re not going to cause injury), then drop the weight. For exercises that require body weight (like the ones in “Barbara”) try doing a substitute as follows:

  • Pullups
    • Do assisted pullups with as little weight as possible (the weight acts as a counter balance).
    • Do lat pull downs
  • Pushups
    • Do bench press with a lighter weight
  • Situps
    • Lower your reps as mentioned above.
  • Squats
    • Try leg press with a lower weight

Sometimes it’s about quantity, not quality

A lot of people are amazed when I tell them I can do 100 pull-ups. To be honest, I never thought I would be able to do 100 pull-ups across the span of my life, let alone in one workout. I get my pull-ups done 5-10 at a time (which is an improvement over the 1-2 I could do last year). One of the best techniques for a lot of pull ups is Kipping. You use a shoulder rotation and your momentum to pull you over the bar. The other thing I find that helps is raising your knees as you pull up to give you momentum.

Keep your eyes on the prize

The biggest obstacle in these workouts is your mind. If you can overcome it, you can get through it. Think of how good you’re going to feel about yourself when you get this done, think about your next cheat day, whatever your motivation is – keep reminding yourself why you’re doing this.

Hope that helps – I look forward to seeing comments on any of the workouts I post here, but especially the CrossFit ones as they tend to be a cut above the rest.

Shendy.