Month: February 2013

The Real Bear Complex

Yesterday I rested. Walked 9 holes of golf early in the morning, which was good active recovery. I was pretty wrecked from Saturday through Tuesday so my body needed it. I’m still sore today, but don’t feel destroyed like I did. Went in for the 9am.

Warm-up

2 Rounds

  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 20 Sit-ups

2x Bergener Warm-up with empty bar

Strength

10:00 EMOM

  • Power Snatch
  • Hang Full Snatch

I’m excited about all of the snatch work we’ve been doing. Today I really focused on full hip extension and I think I made some great progress. I went 75#, 85#, 95#, 105# for 3 minutes, 115# for 2 minutes, and 125# for the last 2 minutes. In the 9th minute I lost focus a bit and had to bail on the full snatch in the bottom of the squat, but I picked it back up and got the rep in. I felt like my hip extension was pretty good in the power snatches and still short from the hang position. It’s definitely improving though.

WOD

bear-complex5 Rounds

  • 7 TnG Bear Complex (Power Clean, Front Squat, SH to OH, Back Squat, SH to OH)

* Combining is allowed, such as doing a thruster for front squat + shoulder to overhead.
* Increase weight each round.
* Partner up so you rest while the other person is working.

I’ve done bear complexes, but never as it’s designed to be done, with 7 TnG reps of the complex per “round”. It was definitely a challenge! Started off light with 75# to get the feel for it and warm up some more. Then went 85#, 95#, 115#, and 125#. Pretty much thrusters and back thrusters the entire way for me. I did quite a bit of resting with the bar on my back in the last round and some in the 4th round. Going any heavier would have been very difficult to finish.

Hike

After 4pm I headed out and did a hike. 2.39 miles in 1:03:59, while wearing the 20 pound weight vest. Strapping that thing around my chest really adds a whole other level to the hike.

I Should Be Taking A Rest Day

After doubles on Saturday and Sunday and a tough WOD yesterday, I should have taken today off. I saw the WOD though and know I can use extra pull-up work, love box jumps, and rarely get to do GHD sit-ups. So there I was at 9am ready to get my sweat on. Gayle said she was kind of taking it easy on us with the WOD today and it was like an active recovery day. HA HA! I don’t remember working so hard on an active recovery day.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

  • 1m DU
  • 3 Turkish Get-ups (25# KB, each side)

I went light for all 3 rounds because I’m having some issues in my right hand. I can really feel it after doing shoulder to overhead movements like all of the thrusters yesterday. I need to give it a few days rest.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 30 Pull-ups
  • 30 GHD Sit-ups
  • 30 Box Jumps (24′)

We had the option of doing 50 Sit-ups or 30 on the GHD, so I went with the GHD. Gayle mentioned Rx for the box jumps was 30′, but I went with 24′ so I could rebound them and keep a higher intensity. Finished in 15:59. I really tried to push myself more in the pull-ups with shorter rest periods and some bigger sets as I got tired, but still ended up down to 3 at a time. That’s a lot of GHD sit-ups in a WOD especially when the sets are that big.

Finisher

  • 600m Weighted Run (20# MB)

Didn’t do it fast, but got it done. I’m definitely taking tomorrow off and will maybe get out for a round of golf.

135 Pound Thrusters Suck

My abs are pretty sore, either from the sit-ups, the snatch work, or more likely from both. Things like the OHS and snatch balance are very underrated in being a core exercise. My shoulders and lats are pretty sore from the snatch work too. Since I did double workouts on both Saturday and Sunday, I took some extra rest and went in for the 5:15pm today. I’ve also been told there is some good competition at this time.

Warm-up

5:00 Row at 20 spm keeping a pace +/- 3s

This was something new and interesting. I tried to count a 1-2-3 on the recovery to make sure I wasn’t pulling too often, but when I did pull I gave it power. I tried to keep my pace right around 2:00/500m.

Strength

5×3 Front Squats

Last time I did a 5×3 on front squats I hit my old PR of 235# for all 3 reps. It’s been a couple of months since hitting a 255# 1RM so I was shooting to hit it for 3 today. So close! I went 135#, 165#, 205#, and 235# for 3 reps. I got the first two reps at 255# and then lost the rack on the 3rd one as I started to come up. If I had gotten a little tighter and more organized before the rep I think I would have had it. Nice improvement though.

WOD

  • 15 Thrusters (135#)
  • 200m Run
  • 20 Thrusters (95#)
  • 400m Run
  • 30 Thrusters (65#)

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate thrusters? I was not looking forward to this WOD, especially Rx. But I went for it. For the 135# thrusters I had a set of 9 to start and then got 5 more before I had to bail. I was so pissed to leave one rep left. On the 95# thrusters I went 8-4-4-4. Rough! Then for the final 30 with 65# I went 12-10-8. My strength endurance still sucks. Lance and Adam smoked me. I finished in 15:17. Glad I went Rx after all is said and done, but it damn near killed me.

Double Duty Weekend

I walked 18 holes of golf last night and afterwards my legs and low back were shot. Exhausted! Went in for the 9am class. I felt like I made good progress with my snatch yesterday so might as well keep it going with the clean & jerk today.

Warm-up

  • 200m Run
  • 200m Run Backwards
  • 400m Run
  • 200m Run Backwards
  • 200m Run
  • 5 Deadlifts (135#)
  • 5 Deadlifts (185#)

The backwards runs are fun!

WOD

4 Rounds

  • 200m Run
  • 24 Lunges (12 each side)
  • 12 Deadlifts (185#)
  • 6 Lateral Burpees Over Bar
  • 1m Rest

One of the easier ones to be honest. I’m sure my legs will feel it later, but the entire thing only took 12:01, with 3 minutes of that being rest time. My rounds were 2:13, 2:12, 2:14, and 2:18. I screwed up counting the over the bar burpees a couple of times so the overall time is messed up a little. Not sure what happened in that last round because I thought it was my fastest run of the bunch. I guess the deadlifts and burpees must have been a lot slower. Other than that, very consistent though.

Finisher

  • 150 AbMat Sit-ups

I decided to do the first 100 as fast as possible to try to break my PR and I smashed it, with a time of 3:02, beating my previous best of 3:34. Took a minute rest and then busted out the last 50 unbroken in 1:41, which was a lot more of a struggle.

Headed home for some food and then back to Full Strength for OLY at noon. Warmed up with a 500m row, PVC pass-thrus and around-the-worlds. Then we also did some progressions with the PVC pipe to loosen up and get some feel.

Snatch Work

We did the following, working up in weight by doing doubles or singles.

  • Snatch Deadlift to the knee
  • Snatch Deadlift to the knee, pause, Snatch

Did some doubles at 45#, 75#, and 95#. Went up to 115# and 125# for singles. Since I had just worked up to heavy singles yesterday morning, I didn’t want to do that again, especially working from the knee. I tried to concentrate on technique, which is slowly getting better.

Snatch Balance

These felt solid today. Started off with doubles at 125# and then 145#. Didn’t feel comfortable dropping the weight back on my back after that so I switched to singles and dropped the weight to the floor after my rep. I went 155#, 165#, and 175#. That’s 20# heavier than I’ve done before and even 10# heavier than I’ve ever done for an OHS. Makes me feel good that if I can get the bar up there on a snatch, I can finish it off. I had the first attempt at 175#, but lost a little stability in the bottom and the weight came forward so I bailed. Nailed it without much trouble for a couple of singles after that and called it a day.

2 Hour Saturday

I had a great rest day yesterday and went in for the 8am Competitors WOD and stayed to do the regular WOD as well.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • PVC OHS

Strength

Work up to a heavy snatch single.

I started out with a few at 75# and a few at 95#, then started going up by 10# after one or two reps at each weight. Focus was on keeping the bar close and getting hip extension instead of looping the bar out, which I have a problem with. I got up to 155# and got under it for the first time, but it was a little too far forward and I couldn’t steady it before standing up. Took another shot and wasn’t committed to it. Nailed it on the 3rd try, which is a 10# squat snatch PR. I’ve hit 155# with an ugly power snatch in competition before, so this felt good to finally get out-of-the-way. Took the personal win and stopped there for the day.

WOD #1

This one comes from event #5 of the 2010 CrossFit Games.

7 Rounds

  • 3 Cleans (185#)
  • 4 Deficit HSPU (10# bumpers)

I scaled of course because it calls for 205# cleans and ring HSPU. I did power cleans the whole way through and reset for each rep. It was heavy, so I picked a good weight. My neck and collarbone are already showing some bruising. I can’t believe how much my HSPU have improved in the last few weeks. We’ve been doing them once or twice a week, so I’ve had plenty of work on them and it’s really paying off. I did each set unbroken. Final time was 8:36.

Since I was already warmed up, I skipped out on the warm-up the regular class was doing so I could cool down a bit.

WOD #2

3 Rounds

  • 5 Wall Walks
  • 20 cal Row
  • 15 K2E
  • 25 Wall Balls (20#, 10′ target)
  • 15 Ring Dips
  • 50 DUs

This was a non-stop suck fest! It was the first time I’ve ever done wall walks and after the 28 deficit HSPU they were not easy. Finished in 22:57.

I’m actually not feeling too bad after all that, but I suspect tonight I’ll be exhausted, especially if I head out for a round of golf this afternoon. Felt good to get really heavy in a WOD with the 185# cleans.

I jumped on the scale after everything and was at 191.5 with my shoes and clothes on, so I’d say the diet changes are working. I certainly am feeling good with the healthy food changes and getting a lot of sleep.