Year: 2012

Triple Max Front Squat

Went to the 7pm class because I had work to do this morning and waited for my iPhone 5 to be delivered tonight in case it needed a signature. Feeling good after a complete rest day yesterday.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

  • 15s PVC Pass-thrus
  • 15s PVC OHS
  • 15s Zombie Kicks
  • 15s Lateral Jumps

Strength

5×3 Front Squats

These felt great today. Started off with 6 @ 135# and then 3 reps at each of 155#, 185#, 205#, 225#, and 235#. Had some left in the tank too, but I didn’t want to fail and that was already my 6th set. My previous 1RM is 235# so hitting it for 3 reps today was a good place to stop.

WOD

20:00 EMOTM, do as much of the following in the first 30 seconds

  • 5 Romanian Deadlifts (185#)
  • 5 C2B Pull-ups
  • 5 Burpees

In the first minute I got 4 burpees, then 3 in the next minute, then 4, then 2 I think. After that, there were no more burpees until the final minute where we worked the entire minute and I barely got everything done. I kept doing my pull-ups as chest to bar throughout the WOD, but it wasn’t too long before I was only getting 4 pull-ups each minute. Only once did I just get 3, so that was somewhere around 90 C2B Pull-ups and 100 RDLs. This was much harder than it looked.

Explosion

Kevin talked me into staying after a bit to do some explosive stuff. We did 6 or 7 sets of explosive push-ups up on to plates by doing sets of 2s. The highest we got up to was 19.5″.

Then we started trying some kneeling snatches with his 15# training bar. I landed some, then went up to 25# for a few. Finally tried 35#, missed the first, and then nailed the second attempt. Next it was some kneeling jumps up on to stacked mats. We maybe got up to 8 or 10 inches.

Jill’s 29th

I was planning to take a rest day. Kevin asked if I wanted to help come up with WOD, so he made up the warm-up and I did the WOD. After coming up with it, I knew it looked like fun and I had to give it a try. Matt came in and partnered up with me in the 11am class.

Warm-up

10-20-30-20-10

  • Russian Twists (30# KB)
  • AbMat Sit-ups
  • Weighted V-ups (20# DB)

This sucked! My midline got a good workout last night with the GHD sit-ups and pullovers, so finishing these was a struggle. Took 13 or 14 minutes.

WOD

Since it was Jill’s birthday, everything was based on her age and birthdate.

1983s (33:03) AMRAP
* Partners with one person working at a time

  • 29 Hollow Rocks
  • 29 Pull-ups
  • 29 DB Snatches (45# DB)
  • 29 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)
  • 12 Curb Runs (100m)
  • 1 High Five

We split things up pretty evenly and kept a great pace. This was the best I’ve ever done on pull-ups. I did 14-14-14-15-16 of the pull-ups and all rounds I did unbroken. The most kipping pull-ups I’d done in a row was 15 before today. We ended up with the best score of the day by getting 4 full rounds and all the way through to 21 of the wall balls. When I made up the WOD I wasn’t thinking the run would be such a big portion of it, but it was probably about half of our time for each round.

Open Gym Friday

It’s been awhile since I did an open gym session at Survival Fitness. First I started with a WOD they did on Wednesday, which I had missed out on.

21-15-9

  • Box Jumps (24″)
  • HR Push-ups
  • T2B

The box jumps were easy and all done unbroken with rebounding off the ground. Hand release push-ups went better than expected, but I had to take some breaks in the rounds of 15 and 9. I set a new PR with 21 unbroken toes to bar, but that ended up hurting me. I couldn’t string them together very well for the next 2 rounds because my hips wouldn’t snap shut. They were one at a time in the round of 9. Finished in a time of 5:07, but was hoping to go sub 5. Great little WOD though.

8:00 AMRAP

  • 20 Push Presses (75#)
  • 20 OHS (75#)

I got 2 full rounds plus 20 push presses and 11 overhead squats, which is 3 reps shy of when I did it a couple of months ago in San Diego. I screwed up in round 2 though and for some reason started doing back squats, so lost valuable time and reps there. This is a great shoulder burner.

8 Rounds

  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 10 Pullovers (45# DB)
  • 20 DUs

Didn’t do this for time, more to get in some midline work and some random DU practice.

Sixth Double Day

Today is the 6th day in a row where I’ve done two workouts. I’m actually feeling good though and have been smart about them for the most part.

Went to OLY class at 6pm and worked on the clean and jerk by doing singles of:

  • Clean Deadlift
  • Hang Clean
  • Jerk

I worked my way up in weight doing at least 2 or 3 before increasing the load. After one at 195# I stopped doing the jerks because they were starting to bother my shoulders. I got up to a 205# for a couple of singles and stopped there. Have never done hang cleans even close to that heavy, but they felt good and really forced me to work on getting under the bar quick to receive it in the squat.

Stayed right after for the 7pm class.

Warm-up

10->1

  • Russian KBS (40# KB)
  • Star Jumps

Strength

5×5 Deficit Deadlifts off 8 foam mats, which is about 3″

  • 5 @ 225#
  • 5 @ 275#
  • 5 @ 305#
  • 5 @ 325#
  • 5 @ 345#

Felt kind of heavy today, but that’s 20 pounds heavier than a 5×3 a couple of months ago, so I guess that feeling should be expected!

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 3:00 AMRAP
    • 3 Power Cleans (115#)
    • 6 Chest to Deck Push-ups
    • 9 Air Squats
  • 1m Rest

I finished 21 rounds + the 3 cleans, 6 push-ups, and 3 of the air squats. I’ll take it after doing an hour of clean and jerks just before. Glad I didn’t try to Rx this at 135# because it would have been bad. Using 115# allowed me to focus on keeping a good back position and cycling the reps without dropping the bar after each rep. The push-ups weren’t a problem, but my squats were kind of slow after the first couple of rounds.

Working on Upper Body Strength

My legs needed a day off today. Did 20 minutes on the rower at a nice pace and went 4,395m. At each of my 5 minute splits I went faster and faster. Felt good.

Then went over to Kevin’s tonight for some strength work.

Shoulder Press

  • 10 @ 65#
  • 5 @ 95#
  • 5 @ 105#
  • 5 @ 115#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 5 @ 140#

Both of the last two sets were higher than the 130# I did a few weeks ago. The reps at 140# were kind of ugly with some upper back in there to help out.

Weighted Chin-ups

  • 3 @ 10#
  • 3 @ 15#
  • 3 @ 20#
  • 3 @ 25#
  • 3 @ 35#

These were so much easier than when I did 5×5 a couple of weeks ago and had to struggle for 15# on the last set. Quite a jump this time around.

Weighted Dips

  • 1 @ 25#
  • 1 @ 35#
  • 1 @ 45#
  • 1 @ 50#
  • 1 @ 60#
  • 1 @ 70#

Jumping up into support and then the negative portion of the dip are the hardest part. Pushing out of the bottom felt just fine and none were too difficult.

Weighted Push-ups

  • 8 @ 45#
  • 8 @ 55#
  • 8 @ 60#
  • 8 @ 70#

First set was easy, but not so easy after that. Also knocked out a set of 10 strict pull-ups, which is still my unbroken PR from this summer, so felt good to be able to do that many after so much work. Then did 4 strict chest to bar pull-ups on this fat bar thing where your hands are in close with the palms facing each other.

Early Present To Myself

My legs aren’t as sore as I expected from squat day and 2 hours of playing soccer.

Went to the Olympic Lifting class at 6pm and worked on snatches for the entire hour. After warming up with the PVC pipe and bar, I started adding weight. I think I went 75#, 95#, 115#, 125#, 135#, and 145# with a lot of reps on the lighter weights and a few as they got heavier. Never missed the entire hour. I did screw up a little on some of them and caught them in a power snatch instead of a squat snatch. Receiving the bar felt better than it ever has and I nailed 145# more times tonight than I have combined in all previous attempts.

Maybe I should have tried to go for 155# which I have only done once and it was an ugly power snatch in competition, but I didn’t want to get greedy. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the reps tonight. I’m still fighting to keep my shoulders back as I setup and get that big chest. Kevin gave me a tip about my feet that seemed to really help too. I was getting too close to the bar in my setup and he told me that I should get to the point where I would only see the base of my big toe in front of the bar looking down. Felt weird, but I think it really helped out.

I hurried home to check for a package that was scheduled to arrive from Rogue and it was waiting on the front porch.

She is a thing of beauty. My buddy Brent came over and we broke her in. I rowed a couple 500s before he showed up.

5 Rounds

  • 500m Row
  • 30s DUs
  • 2:30 Rest

Jumping right from the rower to DUs was tough shit. My last round was actually my best at DUs and I knocked out 23 in a row right off the bat. Overall I did ok with my DUs, but they need a lot of work when I’m that tired because I was missing way too many. Each round or the rower was a bit slower too, but I tried to push it with everything I had on the last 500m and finished it in 1:47. I don’t remember what any of my other splits were because I kept looking at the pace clock which is bigger. Either I’ll have to figure out how to configure the display better or get used to what numbers are which.

I’m glad I made the purchase. She’s going to get a lot of use!

Holy Shit Balls, That’s A LOT of Squats!

My hamstrings really kicked in today from the 100 good mornings Kevin and I did on Saturday night. Just in time for squat day and RDLs! Went to the 5:30pm class.

Warm-up

4 Rounds

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

Strength

5×5 Front Squat

It’s been over 2 months since we did this. Last time I got 215# for 2 reps on my last set, so my goal was to hit it for all 5 today and I did. Went 8 reps at 135# and then 5 reps each at 155#, 175#, 195#, and 215#.

Accessory

12:00 EMOTM

  • Odds: 10 RDLs (155#)
  • Evens: 10 Goblet Squats (55# KB)

Just what the Doctor ordered for sore hamstrings, high rep RDLs!

WOD

5 Rounds

  • 15 MB Squat Cleans (20# MB)
  • 15 Wall Balls (20# MB, 10′ target)

Towards the end of the 2nd round my hips really started to lock up. It was a struggle. Finished in 10:26.

That was as shit ton of squats today! I can barely walk already. Going to try and play soccer for the first time in my life at 8:30pm, so that should be interesting.

Bench Experimentation

Did some new bench press related stuff in the garage tonight.

Inclined Dynamic/Speed Bench Press

  • 2 Sets of 3 @ 45#
  • 2 Sets of 3 @ 95#
  • 3 Sets of 3 @ 115# (index finger on smooth part of bar)
  • 3 Sets of 3 @ 115# (extended thumb on the edge of the knurling)
  • 3 Sets of 3 @ 115# (pinky on the power ring)

Decline DB Press

  • 20 @ 30# DBs
  • 20 @ 35# DBs
  • 20 @ 40# DBs

After the first set we propped the foot of the bench up on one of my platforms to get more of a decline.

Tricep Rollbacks

  • 15 @ 15# DBs
  • 15 @ 20# DBs
  • 15 @ 20# DBs
  • 15 @ 25# DBs

I had only done the dynamic benching on a flat bench before and never with the different grip positions. It was a nice change going inclined and switching up the grips like that. Found the info after doing a little research into how Westside does their dynamic days. They also suggested the DB presses and some triceps work. None of the work really killed me, but we’ll see how I feel from it tomorrow.

Road Work Circuit

I’m feeling pretty good after yesterday’s WOD and then the explosive training we did at night. Little sore in a lot of places, but nothing bad. Went to the 11am today and 14 of us were there to get our sweat on.

Warm-up

Matt called this a road work circuit, with the goal being to keep your heart rate in the 130-150 range, but work hard enough to get a sweat on.

5 Rounds

  • 1m Russian KBS (40# KB)
  • 1m Lateral Step Overs (12″ box)
  • 1m Air Squats
  • 1m Jump Rope
  • 1m Jingle Jangles
  • 1m Rest

It was kind of hard not to push the pace, but at the same time nice to work at a steady pace. I started out a little slow and my heart rate was less than 130, so I stepped it up a bit and each round it went up progressively, while still staying below the high-end of the range. Solid long “warm-up” that would be harder than most fitness classes out there.

WOD

12:00 AMRAP

  • 12 Box Jumps (32″)
  • 6 Thrusters (75#)
  • 6 Burpees

This is actually based off the hero WOD “Rahoi” but due to space and box availability we had to switch it up. We don’t have the room for bar-facing burpees so we just did normal ones and our supply of 24″ boxes ran out quick so I went with the 32″ box. Since my box was so high, I scaled the thruster weight down from 95# to try to even it out a bit. You can’t really even out those box jumps though. The level of concentration and effort needed to keep jumping on that box is so much more than a 24″. The jump down off the box is really taxing too. Thrusters were probably too easy at 75# so it’s time to start stepping up my game on those. I was able to do 5 complete rounds plus 12 box jumps, 6 thrusters, and 3 of the burpees for a 5 + 21 score.

Explosive Work

Went over to Kevin’s garage tonight to work on some new explosive stuff.

Lightened Deficit Deadlifts

With a black band anchored overhead so we basically had 100% weight at the top of the lift for the lockout

  • 5 @ 295#
  • 5 @ 365#
  • 5 @ 365#
  • 5 @ 415#

The black bands gave up a lot of help at the bottom of the lift, so that we could explode up from the bottom. I used lifting straps on the last round and still almost lost the weight. Had to kind of regrip after the 3rd rep.

Then we did 50 speed 1/4 back squats with #225. You do all 50 in a row, but every other set of 10 you go up on to your tip toes, starting with the first 10. That’s a long time to have that much weight on your back and by the end of the 50 it’s really a lot.

Next we did 100 good mornings. I used 95# and broke it down into 50-20-15-15. Tough. My legs started to get wobbly after these.

To finish things off we did 5 sets of 3 kneeling jumps. The first set was just jumping up to our feet, then using a sand-filled PVC pipe to do cleans. Next I think we did a couple sets for broad jump distance and finally one set with the heavy PVC on our back and to just get back to our feet.