Month: December 2012

If Grace and Cindy Paired Up…

Feeling pretty good today, especially by waiting until 5:30pm to WOD.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Supermans
  • 15s Left Side Plank
  • 15s Right Side Plank

Strength

5×5 Floor Press

I did 115#, 145#, 165#, 185#, and 205#. That’s up from 195 I did last time and equal to what I did a couple of weeks ago for bench press. But the 205# was easier on the floor press, which doesn’t make much sense.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 10 C&J (115#)
  • 5 Rounds of “Cindy”
    • 5 Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

Great WOD! I figured I could break under 20 minutes due to the fact that my “Grace” time with 125# is in the low 4s and I can do “Cindy” rounds in less than a minute. Finished in 17:46, but screwed up in the 2nd round through. I messed up my sticks and was a round of “Cindy” short, so I had to do 6 at the end. Clean and jerks felt good and I didn’t even really jerk them, mostly push presses. Rounds of “Cindy” aren’t too bad, except the push-ups start to get hard and had to break them up a bit. Very solid WOD though, which tested both my improved strength and my conditioning. Both felt solid.

Finisher

DU Practice

I got several streaks of 25-30 and called it a day.

What’s a Rest Day?

Feeling ok today, but after 4 solid days in a row it’s a good idea to take a break from any high intensity. Went in at 6pm for Olympic lifting class.

5×2 Snatch Balance

Worked up in weight, but these didn’t feel very good. My shoulders were not feeling stable at all.

10×1 Snatch

Worked up, down, and back up in weight. Felt better than the snatch balance, but not all that great. I’m not sure what was going on, but I couldn’t even convince myself to drop under 145# today.

5×2 Snatch High Pull

These felt the best out of everything. I think I worked up to 185#.

Came home and while waiting for Kevin to come over, I jumped on the rower at a nice easy pace. In 21 minutes I went over 4,300 meters, which is about a 2:25/500m pace. Call it a recovery row I guess.

Instead of doing a typical 5 sets of X number of reps, I wanted to try something different today. So I strapped on the weight vest, which adds 20# to my frame, and did 5 sets of max reps for each pull-ups and ring dips. My weighted pull-ups kind of sucked and I only got 5-5-4-4-4. Although I usually start around 10# and work up, so maybe not all that bad. For the weighted ring dips I got 10-9-8-7-7.

First time using the new pull-up bar and it felt solid. After doing dips on the rings with weight, I think I’m going to have to do my ring suspension system over again because they are too far apart. I guess that will be a project for next year when I come back from Arizona.

Speed Burpees

Feeling a little beat up tonight, but screw it, I’m not doing anything high intensity tomorrow. More engine work!

10:00 EMOM

  • 10 Burpees

Did them as fast as possible each minute. Started out the first 4 minutes at a 20 second pace, even getting one round done in 19 seconds. Started to slow a bit, but the clock never hit 24 seconds while I was working.

Zerchers

My legs were fatigued all day yesterday, but felt fine this morning. Went in for the 9am class.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

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

Strength

5×5 Zercher Squats

First time for these. Felt a little odd for the first few sets, but started to get the hang of it. I ended up using the same loads I had used for 5×5 front squats 3 weeks ago: 135#, 155#, 175#, 195#, and 215#. Hit 5 reps on each and the last set was tough. Might have had another 5 or 10 pounds in me, but I’ll take it for my first time.

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 21 Over the Box Jumps (24″)
  • 16 Weighted Lunges (45# DBs)
  • 9 Front Squats (45# DBs)

This was a hell of a leg killer and even after the first round I had to really concentrate on every box jump to make sure I got up there. Did my best not to take any rest breaks, but did have to put the DBs down between lunges and squats in the 3rd and 4th rounds. Finished in 13:58, which feels good since grabbing the 45# DBs is on the edge or past my limits.

Finisher

  • 10 -> 1 Ladder of T2B
  • 20s Spider Plank

Did all of the T2B unbroken. First time doing spider planks and those are tough. My legs were pretty shaky after the WOD.

A Sunday Triple

Feelin’ good. Getting a lot of sleep. Eating pretty healthy. Drinking more water. Seeing results. Went in for the 11am.

Warm-up

  • 100 Jumping Jacks
  • 100 Mountain Climbers
  • 100 Butt Kicks
  • 100 Lateral Hops (I alternated legs each 25)
  • 25 PVC Pass-thrus
  • 3 x 1m Bottom Squat Hold (30s rest between each)

WOD #1

Tabata Front Squats (65#)

I got 80 total reps. Nice burn, but could really feel my lower back towards the end.

Take 2 minutes of rest before the next WOD.

WOD #2

13 -> 1 Ladder

  • Burpees
  • Russian KBS (53# KB)

Never took a break and finished in 8:56. It was a 10:00 time cap and then 3 minutes of rest before starting the next WOD, so it was nice to get that extra minute of rest.

WOD #3

50 Reps of Sandbag Complex

  • Clean the bag up on to a shoulder
  • Squat
  • Press the bag up OH and on to the other shoulder
  • Squat

I was able to find a nice rhythm with these and did blocks of 5 throughout most of the WOD. At the end, the presses started to get harder so I switched to blocks of 4 at a time. Crushed this one in 7:37.

Great hour of work for a Sunday. I’m shocked how fast my conditioning has come back. I’ve only been doing the extra rowing stuff at home for a couple of weeks and just cleaned up my diet a week ago. I hope this continues.

Feeling, Bad to Good

I got up early for a Saturday. I think it was before 7:30. Didn’t feel good all morning as I lazed in front of the TV. Seriously thought about staying home from the gym, but went to 10am anyway.

Warm-up

50 Rounds

  • 2 Russian KBS (40# KB)
  • Goblet Squat (40# KB)

It took a few reps to get used to releasing the KB after the 2nd swing and catching it for the goblet, then throwing it back in the air after the goblet to go into the next swings.

WOD

  • 100 Jump Squats
  • 25 “Gladiator” Man Makers (25# DBs)
    • Row, Push-up, T, Row, Push-up, T, Stand, Clean, Press
  • 50 Burpees

Those jump squats to start are deceptively difficult. I was feeling the burn in my legs at 30 reps. Broke the gladiator man makers down in to 5 sets of 5 by using a popsicle stick for every 5th rep so I didn’t lose count. When a movement is as complicated as these were, counting always gets hard. Having to move the stick provided a nice little break in there. The last 10 reps were difficult, with the T (twist your torso and reach the DB straight up to the sky) being the hardest part. Once I got to the burpees I knew the end was in sight and knocked them out unbroken. I flew through the last 5 as fast as possible for that extra little push.

I think my time was 17:34. It wasn’t the heaviest use of DBs, but I couldn’t have gone any heavier with that type of intensity, so I’ll take my top time of the class. It’s been awhile since I’ve knocked out a WOD like this, so I think my conditioning is coming back up. And to think I wasn’t feeling well before getting to the gym.

Finisher

10-20-30-20-10

  • Russian Twists (35# KB)
  • AbMat Sit-ups
  • Weighted V-ups (20# DB)

Ugh, this ab circuit Kevin made up a couple of weeks ago is horrible, mostly because of the weighted v-ups. It was especially bad today because our abs were fatigued from the plank position held for most of the WOD.

Hopefully I feel up for some rowing later tonight.

Hobbit Friday

Took the day off work to go see The Hobbit in IMAX 3D and I’m well rested after taking yesterday off. Went in to open gym tonight. All I did for a warm-up were some PVC pass-thrus.

Strength

Alternated sets between bench press and the deficit deadlifts.

5×3 Bench Press

  • 10 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 155#
  • 3 @ 175#
  • 3 @ 195#
  • 3 @ 215#

That’s a new high for 3 reps, up from only being able to hit 215# for 2 reps last cycle. These didn’t feel that great this week either, which is two weeks in a row it’s been a struggle.

5×1 Deficit (3″) Deadlifts

  • 5 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 225#
  • 1 @ 315#
  • 1 @ 345#
  • 1 @ 385#
  • 1 @ 405#
  • 1 @ 415#

The 415# pull matches my 1RM for regular deadlifts. As I went for it, I didn’t think I was going to get it moving because it was really slow to start. Once it got above the deficit it felt smooth though.

WOD

This was a workout I made up and Matt used for the box today, so I had to give it a try even though I planned to do death by snatch.

10 Rounds

  • 3 Full Squat Cleans (115#)
  • 10 Lateral Bar Hops
  • 10 HR Push-ups

The goal of the cleans was to cycle them without dropping the bar, so I chose 115# instead of the Rx 135#. I also wanted to keep my time under 10:00 so felt I had a good shot by dropping down in weight. I finished in 8:50. Was able to do all of the cleans while holding the bar and the hops were a piece of cake for me. The push-ups on the other hand sucked. Got pretty tough around the middle of WOD. After getting done I’m kind of curious what my time would have been with 135#.

I’m really happy with how the design of this WOD turned out. I figured some of the top scores would be under 10 minutes and they were. A lot of people finished around 12-15 minutes from the scores on the whiteboard. The use of the barbell didn’t overpower the WOD, so you could still get out quality cleans even in the 10th round, but the push-ups were a great challenge. The lateral hops were just enough high intensity to string it all together.

Finisher

3 Sets

  • MAX Deficit HSPU (hands on 15# bumper plate, which is probably 1-2″)
  • 2m Rest

I was able to do 5, 6, and 4 reps. Tough! This was my first time trying HSPU like that.

I did a bunch of jump rope as kind of a cool down too.

Dynamic Effort Speed Squats

Took a rest day today, because I was feeling pretty beat up last night. Did do a round of dynamic effort box squats which I haven’t done in a month or two. Kept it light due to all of the squatting we’ve done at Survival Fitness this week.

  • 2×2 @ 45#
  • 1×2 @ 95#
  • 1×2 @ 115#
  • 8×2 @ 145#

Tried to keep rest time to about a minute between each set. Definitely started to feel it towards the end.

Have a bunch of stuff planned for open gym tomorrow, so it should be fun with a recovered body.

Thrusters Suck

After working out yesterday morning I felt pretty good, until I did the rowing intervals before dinner. After that everything seemed to hurt. Sort of “meh” today, with definite soreness in my hamstrings. I heard about the workout this morning and thought about skipping out because I hate thrusters and knew how bad the WOD would suck. But you can’t improve on a movement if you skip out on it, so I forced myself to go in for the 5:30pm class.

I was there pretty early so had a chance to do a bunch of PVC pass-thrus and around the worlds to warm up my shoulders.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

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

4 Rounds

  • 15s Plank
  • 15s Supermans
  • 15s Right Side Plank
  • 15s Left Side Plank

Strength

Find 1RM Shoulder Press

  • 10 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 75#
  • 2 @ 95#
  • 1 @ 115#
  • 1 @ 135#
  • 1 @ 145#
  • 1 @ 155#
  • Fail at 165#
  • 1 @ 155#

Looking back, I probably did too many warm-up reps. I never do it like that. 160# is my previous PR, so went for a new one even though 155# was pretty damn hard. I’ll take hitting 155# twice for the day though. Sounded like most people were doing pretty bad as well because of other work we’d done this week.

WOD

20:00 EMOM

  • 8 Thrusters (65#)
  • 3 Burpees

The Rx weights for the thrusters were 95/65, which is nearly impossible to do. I used 65# and couldn’t even do it all. After the 14th minute, I had to drop down to only 6 thrusters each minute so I could keep doing 3 burpees. Did all 8 and 3 reps in the final minute though because getting 30 seconds of rest no longer mattered.

55 thrusters and 55 back squat thrusters with 115# on Monday, 140 wall balls yesterday, and 150 thrusters with 65# today. I fucking hope we’re done with that movement for the week! 🙂

Gun Show Finisher

5 Sets

  • 20 DB Curls (10 each arm)
  • MAX Diamond Push-ups
  • 60s Rest

For the curls I used 15#, 20#, 25#, 30#, and 35#. The last set was a struggle to finish. I got 16, 15, 16, 15, and 12 reps on the push-ups. After this and all of the shoulder work, I can barely move my arms.

Definitely not doing a WOD tomorrow, but will most likely go in for the OLY class to work on the clean & jerk.