Tabata This.

CrossFit last night was too good to not share with you all. I will admit, I was slightly nervous going in to the WOD (workout of the day) but this particular workout is a great way to measure your progress. This was a good one for the books!

I will warn you – my scores are not at all impressive but with time they will improve. Also, once you see the WOD you…well you’ll see. Our Box (what CrossFit calls a Gym) named this fun little workout “Tabata This.” If you don’t know what Tabata is then keep reading you’ll get the gist of it after I explain the WOD.

Basically, it is four-minute rounds of high intensity interval training. The four minutes are broken up into 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times consecutively. Sounds easy enough, right? Above is the white board outlining my very productive Monday evening. It consisted of:

– Rowing (measured by calories burned)
– 1 minute Rest
– Squats
– 1 minute Rest
– Pull ups
– 1 minute Rest
– Push ups
– 1 minute Rest
– Sit-ups

Keep in mind, each exercise is broken up into the four-minute intervals as described above. The total completion time for this WOD is 24 minutes. Your score is determined by the least amount of reps you did in one 20-second interval. For example, if you did 20 squats in the first 20 seconds, 18 in the second, 18 in the third, 15 in the fourth but by the last round you can only do 8 squats then your score is only 8! It’s definitely a good way to teach yourself how to pace. I tried to keep a consistent number throughout so my numbers aren’t what I would have liked but this was a great trial run. By the time I hit the last 20 seconds for each exercise my body was screaming.

My scores are as follows (lowest score out of 8 rounds of each exercise):

– 5 calories in rowing
– 13 Squats
– 3 Pull ups (I realllly struggle with pull ups but I am determined to get better!)
– 5 Push ups
– 6 Sit ups
– Catch my breath
– Drink some water
– Stretch, stretch and stretch

My pre/post-elements CF post (with pictures) is coming up soon. I spoke with one of our trainers after class about the whole Paleo diet thing. While I stay away from processed foods as it is and I do not consume dairy products anymore, I’m wondering if I should try going pseudo-Paleo for a month. He said cutting everything out cold turkey is setting yourself up for failure (which I totally agree with), but committing to two paleo-friendly meals a day would help expose my body to that lifestyle and see if it is something I could actually continue doing. Now, I LOVE toast with breakfast and brown rice pasta and PEANUT BUTTER so I am not so sure how successful I would be at this challenge. However, he also gave me a couple of books he recommends – one is a book about Paleo that still incorporates limited amounts of things like rice (hmmm, I’m thinking brown rice pasta with chicken-apple sausages, stewed tomoatoes and steamed kale is a perfect pseudo-paleo meal…?).

Any thoughts? Have you or anyone you know tried the Paleo lifestyle?

~ by Hilary Walsh on April 3, 2012.