Sunday, November 30, 2008

Mir Weighted Vest Day Two: Tabata Something Else



Here is some video of Jason Kalipha, winner of the CrossFit Games 2008 training with a Mir Weighted Vest. This is validation that my heavy cycle is a good idea.

After the suck-fest that was "Mr Joshua" with a 20-Pound Mir Vest, I did a Thanksgiving 10K trail run at Redwood Regional Park with my CrossFit Athletes. The following day I rowed 2K and did 19 C2B pull-ups. Yesterday I did the CF national WOD Deadlift 5x3:

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I felt like I had been beaten afterward and needed to nap for hours. Mostly the back-to-back 75X250# Deadlifts with a 20-Pound Weighted vest AND 10K STEEP trail run were to blame. By the time I got to the Heavy DL I was already cooked. The national WOD on Thanksgiving was "Nate" a more upper-body centered Metcon, so my sub was a bit crazy in a week where I was trying to go full-bore.

Today I will give the national WOD a shot wearing the 20-Pound Mir Vest.

"Tabata Something Else"

Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Post total reps from all 32 intervals to comments.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Mir 40-Pound Workout Plate Vest, First WOD

Rehab row all done but 2K (98K rowed).

For some time now I have been wanting to do a three-week CrossFit Heavy Cycle, doing all the WODs with a 20# Vest. It was my hope that I would be able to do everything RX, albeit slow. Due to my elbow injury and tertiary weight gain, I doubt my ability to do muscle-ups at my "vest weight" of 205#, but I will do the 4x dip/C2B pull-up sub for M-U.

MIR Fitness vests.


Today was an interesting first WOD:

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"Mr. Joshua" (on a boat)

Five rounds for time of:
Row 500 Meters
30 Glute-ham sit-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps


Time: 30:05. Gave me an exertional headache and migraine artifacts throughout the night.






Initial impressions of vest:

I got 3 MIR Workout Plate Vests for CFEB (cheap) and this will be an opportunity to battle-test them.

MiR Workout Plate Vest

This vest is well-designed and seems very well-made. I have used the X-Vest and V-Max which cost 2-3x as much, and while this is not quite as good, the cost to benefit ratio is quite high. Five pound weight plates (up to 8) fit securely in the front and back pouches. For the initial workout, I did rowing, deadlifts and GHD sit-ups, there was no interference with the first two movements, but sit-ups were tough, as I suppose they would be with any vest. As advertised, due to the short nature of the vest, breathing was somewhat less restricted than with other models I have used. Overall A-.






* Includes one Velcro belt.

* 1200 D-Nylon flap to cover the weight plates in full.

* Cross straps to hold the any weight plates in place.

* 13 inches in length, 14 inches in width, 1 inch in thick.

* Hold up to 40lbs, Plate not included.

Price: $60.00

+40# of 5# plates from Sport Mart on sale for $.80 a pound = about $36.00, total cost $96.00.

You could save money by finding the plastic-type cheap plates, buying them used from Craigslist, or of course if you already have them, this vest is a no-brainer.