2000 burpees later...

BURPTASTIC - or not! Either way over the past two months I have completed over 2000 burpees and there are a few things I have learned.
 
Currently I’m on day 65 of my 100 days of burpees challenge (Day 1 = 1 burpee, Day 2 = 2 burpee... Day 100 = 100 burpees) - there’s also the burpees we do during WODS (workouts) making my total more than 2000.

So over the weeks I’ve compiled this list of the best and worst things about burpees and this challenge.

Good things?
    1 - When someone says 20 burpees I’m no longer afraid.
    2 - My benchpress has improved - from struggling to do 40kg for one rep to easily doing 40kg for 5 reps - I’d like to think the challenge has helped this otherwise, thanks CFNS.
    3 - My pushups have obviously improved.
    4 - My house is cleaner - strange but I’ll put the radio on do 6 to 11 burpees and clean for the rest of the song until the next song starts.
    5 - This works - try to do Saturday + Sunday’s allocation on the one day, or Sun/Mon so you can have Sunday off.
    6 - I’ve tried all the variations of burpees and am starting to find the one that works best for me with a few suggestions from onlookers :)
   
The Bad...
    1 - I’ve done more than 2000 burpees.
    2 - burpees and hangover = no fun for me.
    3 - It sucks I have to scale them otherwise I get too sore for regular training.
    4 - If I forget to finish a day I have more than 100 to do the next time.
    5 - Burpee and Burpee WOD days suck.
    6 - Sometimes people look at me weird and ask what are you doing? Insert recorded message here.

Will I do this again next year? That’s a good question, right now I’d say no, but time heals old wounds so... maybe I’ll do 100 days of something else challenge next time.

Check my last post for the official 100 days of burpees challenge rules

What is your goat?

A GOAT is not a typo for a goal, it's a crossfit term for something you're bad at or you want to improve.

After many sessions at the gym and conversations on what exactly a goat is I found an article on CrossFit Toronto that has inspired this post.

Let's have a look at the definition of goat (according to free dictionary)

a) an animal

b) a bad or inferior member of a group (separate the sheep from the goats)

c) short for scapegoat - a person that is punished for the errors of others

d) to be annoying (play someone's goat)

Ah yes it's starting to make sense now so if we sort of combine them - a goat is a thing (a movement) that we are inferior at, especially compared to other things (movements) and it's really annoying and therefore we get angry at others because we aren't good at this (movement).

Lol it's a bit of a stretch but I hope you see where I'm going.

(not a goat: but this is my training partner to help me work on my running/endurance)

My goats which really are my goals to complete for this year include -

Doing very good RXD (toes/mens) pushups - done!

Deadlift 80kg well - I'm on 75kg at the moment but it ain't pretty, mind you though, I haven't done a deadlift in quite some time

Strict pullups - I can do plenty of kipping pullups but ask for a strict one and that's my goat!

To work on these I have now started

- pullups --> kipping Mondays ----> very assisted and semi assisted (green or purple bands) on Wednesday and Fridays depending on what the programed WOD (workout of the day) is.

- deadlifts - I'm working on my abdominal strength for these ones because I feel that's what is failing me when I lift, my legs feel great, grip fine but i just can't straighten up.

Since the Crossfit Games 2012 finished I've been having a pretty light week diet and goat wise. I'll start to ease my way back into proper training. However with simply consistency over the past year I've made massive improvements.

In fact last week I completed my first 'Fran' RXD - 21-15-9 reps of 30kg thrusters and pullups. I did it in 9.26minutes and I'm stoked. Last time I completed it as a partner WOD with one of my trainers Grace (who has a beautiful little baby now), although we did 'Narf' 9-15-21 it was so hard and it wasn't pretty. lol. I was on green or purple bands and I was doing the thrusters one at a time.

Check in soon to see how I've been progressing and have a look at another CrossFit topic.

P.S. I'm still unsure who exactly coined the term 'goat' anyone know?