Month: November 2012

More Box Jump Stupidity

My abs are sore from the massive number of back squats yesterday and probably the finisher as well. My legs aren’t really sore at all though. A bit fatigued.

Went to the 6pm Olympic lifting class and worked on snatches.

  • Snatch
  • Hang Snatch
  • Snatch Balance

Worked on these one round at a time without putting the bar down. Took a rest after each time through and added some weight. I started with the bar for a few rounds, then went 75#, 95#, 105#, and 115#. I missed the snatch balance on my first attempt at 105# so I did that one again. I’ve never done a hang snatch before. It’s a lot tougher than starting from the floor.

  • Snatch Grip Deadlift
  • Snatch Pull

I started with 125# for a couple of sets, then went 145# for a couple of sets, and finally some at 165#. Not sure how many sets I did at each but it was probably 2 or 3.

After class I headed over to Kevin’s for some garage work.

5×5 Weighted Chin-ups

We almost always do pull-ups weighted at the gym so we figured we’d switch it up a little. I used 10# for the first 2 sets and then 15# for the last 3 sets.

5×3 Weighted Dips

I went 10#, 15#, 20#, 25#, and 35#. Had a few more pounds left in the gas tank too.

Then, the geniuses that we are, we decided to do some high box jumps. After each doing 1-2 jumps at 34″ and 40″, we decided on the 44″. This was a bad idea after so many back squats yesterday. I landed my first jump, but the second one was bad news. My right foot got up, by my left nailed the box and it tumbled off to the right. Scraped up my leg in two places and got a nice bruise that instantly swelled up. Ouch! At least I didn’t get scraped up a ton with this spill.

Finally, did some ab work.

8 Rounds

  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 10 Pullovers (40# DB)

Back That Squat Up, and Let Me See What You Got

My neck and upper back are a little sore from the back tuck spill I took yesterday. Chest a bit sore from bench pressing last night too. Feeling kind of refreshed after taking a couple of days off from CrossFit though. Went in to the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

Strength

1RM Back Squat

I was pretty excited for this since I haven’t done it since March. It was 235# back then. A couple of weeks ago I did 255# on 14″ box squats so was confident I could smash that today. Mission accomplished.

  • 8 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 185#
  • 1 @ 225#
  • 1 @ 255#
  • 1 @ 275#
  • 1 @ 285#

WOD

100 Back Squats at 40% of 1RM (115#)
* Each time you drop the bar add 10 more reps.

I dropped the bar after 62 reps because my left hand was going numb. I was holding the bar with my arms wrapped around it and resting on the plates. I think I cut off blood flood or a nerve was pinched. My hand is actually still tingling. I dropped the bar again after my 90th rep. So that put me at needing 120 reps in total. I got the last 30 without dropping the bar to finish them off. Total time was 10:52 for 120 reps.

I’ve never felt like I was going to pass out during a WOD until this one. I think it was probably because of holding the bar on my back for so long it was restricting blood flow up or something. Not the greatest feeling, but a hell of a WOD to finish.

Finisher

50-40-30-20-10

  • Russian Twists (35# KB)
  • AbMat Sit-ups

Another first was feeling like I was going to throw up while doing sit-ups. You don’t think about how much your abs have to work to do those heavy back squats and then 120 more back squats. Great way to finish though.

Back Tuck Landings

On Thursday and Friday nights I was exhausted from the workouts, so I took yesterday and today off from any WODs. I did go to Gym Jesters today for some gymnastics work and finally was able to land some back tucks. I got the feel for holding the tuck longer and stopped counter-rotating. I worked on them on a smaller trampoline and landed on some mats that were on the trampoline. Felt really cool. Maybe next time I can start landing them on the floor.

Also did a quick 5×3 bench press tonight. I warmed up with the bar and then did 135#, 155#, 175#, 195#, and 2 reps at 215#. I knew I wasn’t going to get a 3rd one and didn’t want to fail, so I racked the bar. I’ll take that though since 215# is my current PR. Should be able to set a nice new PR next week.

Friday Morning Partners

My quads are still sore from Monday! Better each day though. Went to the 9am class, which had 18 people so Matt had to switch it up to a partner workout.

Warm-up

  • Tabata Air Squats
  • Tabata High Knees
  • Tabata Bear Crawl

WOD

30:00 AMRAP with a partner

    • 50 Burpees
    • * Partner holds Bar OH (95#)
    • 75 OHS (95#)
    • * Partner holds Plank
    • 100 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
    • * Partner holds chin over bar

I paired up with Casey A. The Rx for men was 135# on this. At first we were going to try 115#, but as we were loading the bar had second thoughts. Good thing we switched to 95# because that was plenty hard enough. We got through one full round and then up to 31 wall balls in round 2.

A Date with Diane in my Garage

Today’s WOD at Survival Fitness was 100 Power Cleans with 5 burpees on the minute every minute. I had already done “Grace” twice, 50 Curtiss Ps, and other cleans to get the bar in the rack position this week, so I figured it wasn’t a good idea to go in for the OLY class or the WOD. That’s ok though because it let me do some stuff I’ve been wanting to do.

Strength #1

4 Rounds

  • 5-8 Weighted Push-ups (45# plate on back)
  • 30s Weighted Plank on hands (45# plate on back)
  • 2m Rest

I was by myself, so getting the plate on my back wasn’t the easiest. After the last push-up, it was straight into the plank. I was able to get all 8 reps during each set of push-ups. Probably should have gone to exhaustion on that last set.

Strength #2

5×5 Deadlifts

I warmed up with a set of 10 @ 135# and then used 225#, 275#, 305#, 325#, and 350# for my working sets. These felt really good. It was slow getting the 350# started, but the reps weren’t a problem and my grip never felt like it was giving out. According to a 1 rep max calculator I should be able to do 394#, so maybe I’ll be ready for 400# in 2 weeks when we test it. I made sure to take 2-3 minutes of rest between each set.

WOD

mini “Diane”
12-9-6

  • Deadlifts (225#)
  • HSPUs

I did this same thing back in June in a time of 4:49, but I had to resort to using an AbMat an even kipping with the AbMat for the HSPUs. Today I didn’t use an AbMat at all and finished in 5:18. The set of 6 at the end was brutal. I had to kip one at a time and come down off the wall to rest. I’m sure the weighted pull-ups and planks didn’t exactly help with the arm exhaustion. The deadlifts weren’t a big deal, but they do fry your back a bit, making it hard to keep a good position on the wall. I broke the set of 9 into 5 and 4, but the 12 and 6 were unbroken.

It had been at least a couple of months since I’ve done any HSPUs, so it was give them some attention.

Finisher

Tabata DUs

These are no joke, especially after doing the HSPUs.

More Grace

Still unbelievably sore from Monday’s WOD, but I don’t think I’m anymore sore than yesterday. Went in for the 5:30pm and did an alternate WOD since the people who didn’t make it Monday were doing 30 reps of the Bear Complex.

Warm-up

30-20

  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • PVC OHS

Strength

5×5 Shoulder Press

  • 8 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 75#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 105#
  • 5 @ 115#
  • 5 @ 130#

Everything felt good and 130# was pretty easy. It would have been nice to know in advance what we were doing because I would have looked up what I did last time and known to go heavier.

WOD

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
    • Russian KBS (53#)
    • Floor Presses (40# DBs)
  • “Grace”: 30 Clean & Jerks (115#)

Since I know I’ll be working on the clean and jerks tomorrow in OLY class I went a little easy on myself with 115#. Had also just done “Grace” with 125# on Saturday, so this seemed like an odd choice to put in the WOD. I probably should have went Rx with 45# DBs for the floor presses because I flew through them with the 40s. Finished everything in 9:42.

Finisher

100 Quarter Get-ups (40# KB)

Most of the challenge for me with quarter get-ups is in keeping a stable shoulder as I get up to 10 in a row with one arm. Towards the end of the 100 it did get tougher to actually get up off the ground though.

After class I jumped on the rings and did a kipping muscle-up for the first time since my very first one back in July. This one was actually pretty fluid and I didn’t have to reposition my wrists and arms.

Skip the Intensity

I haven’t been this sore in a long time. My quads, hamstrings, IT bands, and glutes all feel like they’re getting stuck with needles as I walk and especially going up or down stairs.

Had Olympic lifting at 6pm. Worked on snatch triples tonight. Worked up to 115# and then did a lot of sets there. Really concentrated on keeping my shoulders back and lats engaged. Felt more comfortable with it as I kept repping. Then did some snatch grip deadlifts, again concentrating on keeping those shoulders back. Settled in at 215# to work on the form.

My legs felt better after warming up and getting them moving. I bet tomorrow isn’t going to be very fun though. Day 2 always seems to be worse.

After class, I went over to Kevin’s and we did some work in his garage.

5 Rounds

  • 10s Ring L-hang
  • 20s Rest

Sort of a reverse Tabata.

8 Rounds

  • 10 Pullovers (40# DB)
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups

Pullovers are a new movement for me and I could definitely feel them working. Was good to get in a bunch of GHD sit-ups since we don’t have a real GHD at Survival Fitness.

I just bought a weight belt, so took that over with me and did some strength work.

Weighted Pull-ups (with belt)

  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 15#
  • 5 @ 20#
  • 3 @ 25#

I’ve always done these with a DB or KB in my feet, which is supposed to be harder because the weight is farther away from the center of mass. The first set didn’t feel good, but later sets felt ok. Shoulders were a bit fried from all of the snatch work though.

Weighted Dips

  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 10#
  • 5 @ 15#
  • 5 @ 15#
  • 5 @ 20#

First time doing weighted dips of any kind, so had no idea what I could do. The first 4 sets felt good, but that last set at 20# was a little rough.

Needed a break from intensity after doing a WOD 4 days in a row, but got in a lot of good work.

Licorice Legs

In for the 9am today.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 15 AbMat Sit-ups
  • 30 Russian Twists (35# KB)

Strength

5 Sets

  • 3 Low Box Squats (12″ box, wide stance)
  • 10 RDLs
  • 2-3m Rest

For the squats I used 135#, 165#, 185#, 205#, and 215#. For the RDLs I used 135#, 155#, 185#, 205#, and 235#. Had another 10# in me for the box squats, but they felt good. Went a lot heavier than I ever have on the RDLs and they felt good too.

WOD

  • 10:00 EMOTM – 8 Front Squats (135#)
  • Death by Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target, by 2s)

It took everything I had to finish the last few rounds of squats, but I did each minute without putting the bar down. Thought about going 115#, but glad I Rx’d it and made it challenging. We didn’t have any real break between the 2 portions of the WOD, although starting out with 2 wall balls in the first minute gives you a lot of break. I got through 20 and then 15 of 22.

My legs are shot. Time to do some rumble rolling.

Hungover

Went out last night with the Survival Fitness crew last night, so didn’t get very good sleep and things are a little foggy today. Went in to the noon class, which only had 3 people, compared to 20 that went to the 11am.

Warm-up

  • 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Weighted Step-ups (95# – front rack)
  • 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 Floor Wipers (95#)

Nice little workout right there in the warm-up.

WOD

20-15-10-5

  • Curtis Ps (95# – hang squat clean, 2 lunges, press)
  • K2E

Those Curtis Ps are brutal. I started off with 5 in a row, but then went 2 or 3 at a time with a couple of singles. I was pretty out of it, so took the opportunity to really concentrate on my squat clean and push jerk techniques. I broke the set of 20 K2E into 15 and 5, then did the other sets unbroken. Got a good workout, but didn’t really push it today. Finished in 27:41.

“Grace” PR

Feeling so much better today. Hit up the 11am.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Jumping Jacks
  • 15s Air Squats
  • 15s Mountain Climbers
  • 15s Jump Squats

Midline

21-15-9

  • One-arm OHS (35# KB)
  • V-ups

The one-arm OHS is such an awkward movement. Using a KB did feel better balanced than when I had used a DB before.

WOD

15:00 AMRAP

  • “Grace” – 30 Clean & Jerks (125#)
  • “Cindy” with the remaining time
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

I finished “Grace” in 4:16, which is a 54 second PR since doing it in July. Even with the much faster time it felt much easier. I did the first 7 reps unbroken then did one rep at a time dropping the bar after each rep. Didn’t take any rest time other than setting up for the next rep. With the remaining time I did 9 full rounds of “Cindy” plus 2 more pull-ups. Good workout!

Finisher

  • 50 Russian KBS (71# KB)
  • 400m Farmer’s Carry (40# DBs)

I did the swings unbroken, which isn’t that tough for Russian KBS. My arms wanted to fall off and my grip was really failing in the farmer’s carry, but I held on to those DBs the entire time. Distance was probably 50m more actually because I had to carry them outside and then back in.