This one goes out to all my CFG homeys

Well mates,

I’ve been aboard the Pequod for some time now, and I’ve had the chance to grace both the gym spaces available. Gather round dear Crossfitter mates, and those who enjoy hearing about the minutia of physical exercise programs.

The Pequod features two separate gyms: one for passengers and one for crew. As an esteemed officer I have access to both. Now, as we see in the picture of the passenger gym:

*Where I do my HSPU/check out my guns*

It’s a larger space with more machines and a much better view. What’s missing? Well, no bars for starts. No place to do pull-ups either. There is a large wooden-floored area I use, but there low ceilings and a plethora of sprinklers. I have to be very careful where I do D/Us—I could flood the ship.

What this means is that when I do overhead presses, I have to bend my knees ever-so-slightly. On the plus side, my D/Us have improved dramatically: I have to keep my arms tight to my sides or else the rope hits the ceiling. The trainers are mostly accustomed to my spastic workouts, but I get looks when I do KBSs...which brings me to another point: I miss kettlebells.

Now, when I want to use a bar, I go down to the crew gym:

*As a bonus, half the machines don’t work. We do have both an “Ab roller” and something called a “Torso Track.” Sweet?*

As you can see, it’s not quite the aesthetic treat that the passengers enjoy. It’s also right above crew quarters so one is encouraged to never drop weights. There goes heavy cleans. As well, the ceiling in the crew gym is even lower. So low I do shoulder presses seated on a bench. An added problem is the plates available, or, rather, lack thereof. I think there are about 300 lbs worth of plates:

This is fine for most of lifts, but my deads are going to suffer, and as there is no rack, so are my squats. Ah well! The sacrifices one makes in the name of bibliographical duty!

My strategy thus far has been to alternate “lifting days” with “conditioning days.” For my lifting, alas!, I do all kinds of gym type isolation exercises. Yes mates, I’m talking about pumping my guns via preacher curls and the like. So, for example, a couple days ago, I worked my shoulders with shrugs, seated presses, and delt raises, then some deads with all the plates (so, like 300ish), then 7min amrap of good ol’ burps (I was tired and only did 60), and finally 7 minutes of my buddy, planking. Today, I caught up on my HSPUs (yes, I’ve been playing along) and some weighted dips done between two treadmills.

For a WOD I did something called “Ivan the Terrible”: 90seconds skipping/50 pushups/50 lunges/ 50 situps/90 seconds skip/40/40/40/90/30/30/30/90/20/20/20/90/10/10/10. Good times! Took me about 30 minutes. I accidentally turned my watch off towards the end so the exact time remains a mystery for the ages. Another reason I miss working with a trainer.

Finally, for this post, I’ll touch on the problem inherent with working out on a ship: the motion of the ocean. About a week ago, I was doing a set of TABATA squats while we were at sea between St. Thomas and St. Croix. We were rocking quite a bit, so my squats alternated between really easy and really hard depending on which way the ship rocked. This was kind of funny, but there are times when I cannot, for safety reasons, do the lifts I was hoping too. Ah well! The view from the sports deck where I go for runs is superb.

If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know. I’d love to do stuff to keep my deads healthy, but with limited internet access, I have a limited ability to conduct research. Just another sacrifice I have made!