Month: December 2015

Use the Force

Had planned to lift with Bryan today at 10. Woke up with a headache and debated skipping out on the gym. Hauled my ass in though. Glad I did!

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • Bottom Squat Hold (45#)
  • OH Mobility (45#)

Snatch

  • 3x3x45#
  • 2x3x95
  • 3×115
  • 3×125
  • 2×140
  • 1×150
  • 1×160
  • 1×170
  • 1×180
  • 1×185
  • 1×190
  • 1×200
  • 1×210

Didn’t realize how many sets we were doing at the time. It was feeling food but nothing special. Then 200# felt great and I had been thinking to stop there but went for one more. I think I’ve only done it once and 215 once. Good place to move on with no misses.

Clean & Jerk

  • 3×135#
  • 3×155
  • 2×185
  • 1×205
  • 1×225
  • 1×245
  • 1×260
  • 1×275 (PR)

Don’t usually like to take such big jumps but now that I’ve figured out how to jerk I’m not afraid of it anymore. After nailing 260 and the jerk feeling easier than it ever had I literally said, “Fuck it!” and went for another 15# increase. I’m catching the clean so high. Haven’t missed a clean or jerk in quite some time now.

Music in the video is “Algorithm Of Desire” by Measles Mumps Rubella.

Front Squat

  • 5×135#
  • 3×185
  • 2×225
  • 2×255
  • 1×275
  • 1×295
  • 1×315

Felt good. Maybe should have gone for 325 which I’ve never attempted before (even though I’ve done 320 for a double), but I’m still holding back a bit and moving up slow with the squats and deadlifts. Don’t break what’s been working. I know I’ve said it so many times, but it sure is nice to have my back healthy so I can lift big again.

Hurried home, showered, and went to Star Wars. Great movie!

Closing Out Week 3

Bumped up the muscle-up focused workout a day this week so that I could get an extra day in between before the pull-ups.

Skill WOD (Hustle & Flow) Week 3 Day 3

Warm-up

My shoulder has been bothering me a little bit since the handstand push-up workout so it’s time to get back in the habit of using the Crossover Symmetry bands more often. Did the Activation protocol.

3 sets

  • 5 Bar Work
    (Hold and pause 2 sec at each position with no form breaks and no momentum)

    • Dead Hang
    • Lat Active Hollow
    • Tight Arch
  • 1 Skin the Cat
  • 7 Straddle V-ups
  • 10s GHD Hanging Bridge Stretch

Skill A – 4 Supersets

  • 1 Ring Swing + Pull-up w/ swing + MU
  • 2 Box Hip Kip Drill
  • 3 Banded Hip Drill

We hadn’t been doing the first thing quite right. You’re supposed to hold in the top of the pull-up, do a swing from there, and then transition into the muscle-up. Was really weird on my first 2 attempts but got the hang of of it then.

Skill Test – 3 sets

1 rep of complex is:

  • MU + 2 Strict Ring Dips (after the MU dip lockout)

First two sets are 3 reps of the complex and then the 3rd set is for max reps. I got 6 reps on the max set again like last week. Felt similar when I got to that last one.

Strength Accessory – 3 sets

  • 3 Lower to Hold Front Lever on Box

Yep, pretty sure I’ll never be able to hold a front lever.

Bonus Complex

  • Set 1: 3 Strict Ring Pull-up + 3 Toes to Rings + 4 MU
  • Set 2: 3+3+5
  • Sets 3+: Keep adding 1 MU until failure

We were messed up on these too. Didn’t know the pull-ups were supposed to be strict, which makes quite a bit difference in fatiguing those pulling muscles. Felt good in the first set. Then 5th rep in the second set was rough. Managed to get 4 in the final set. Hopefully muscle-ups, when we don’t fatigue with other movements, are going to be feeling really easy soon.

I’m on vacation until the 4th now. Hopefully I’ll make more time for conditioning.

Big Balls

Did not want to get out of bed this morning but had to set the alarm to make sure I did because Dad is stopping by tonight.

Warm-up

  • 3×8 GHD Heel Drives
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 3 Rounds
    • Wrist Stretch
    • 10 Air Squats (feet together)
    • 20 Mountain Climbers
    • 10 Toe Touches

Strength: Push Press

  • 6×45#
  • 5×95
  • 3×125
  • 3×155
  • 8:00 EMOM
    • 3 Sets: 3×175
    • 2 Sets: 3×185
    • 2 Sets: 3×195
    • 3×205

All done touch-n-go style.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP: 2-4-6-8…

  • Box Jumps (30″)
  • Burpees

Didn’t even try to rebound any. Held a nice steady pace to keep moving. Finished the round of 14 plus 16 box jumps and 4 burpees.

new-slam-ballsMidline

4 Sets

  • 15 Ball Slams (30#)
  • 10 Weighted GHD Sit-ups (20#)
  • 30s Plank (hands)

We got a bunch of new slam balls so I had to try out the 30 pounder.

210 Plus

Took a much needed complete rest day yesterday. Got on the scale this morning for the first time in weeks. Knew this was coming, but first time over 210, weighing in at 211.5 pounds! At least my strength numbers are going up with it, but this gymnastics stuff sure would be easier if I dropped back to around 2 hundy. Had my monthly adjustment at the chiro and then went to the gym

Warm-up

3 Sets

  • 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Strength

Deadlifts

  • 10x20kg
  • 10×70
  • 5×100
  • 5×120
  • 5×140
  • 5×155
  • 5×170
  • 5×180
  • 5×190

Comes out to 419# on the last set, which is only 16 shy of my best 5, back in November 2013 a couple months after I pulled 515. I did 5×425# back in January of this year for a more recent set. Back when I did the 5×435, I was pretty dumb with my warm-ups. Look at this shit… I did 135-225-315-385-435. Today I took almost twice as many sets to get up close to that. Felt good too. Nice to have my back holding up.

 

Skill WOD Hustle & Flow Week 3 Day 2

Warm-up

3 sets

  • 10 Pass-thrus
  • 10 Hollow Rocks
  • 10 Arch Ups
  • 10 Narrow Grip OHS (45#)
  • 10s Bottom of Dip Hold
  • 10 Bridge Rocks

The narrow grip overhead squats felt rough today.

Skill

4 Sets

  • Freestanding HS Hold practice
  • 16 Shoulder Taps (heels to wall)
  • 20 Shotguns (Shoot to hollow)

Felt better with the handstand holds, but still used the wall as my crutch to kick up and then took my feet off the wall for as much as I could.

Skill Test

  • 4 Deficit Strict HSPU (4″)
  • 3 Deficit Strict HSPU (4″)
  • 3 Deficit Strict HSPU (4″)

In my notes from last week I see 3″ for the working sets, but my record on BTWB says 3.5″ so not sure which was correct. The bump to 4 was not easy though. Should probably decrease and get in more reps next week.

Strength Accessory

3 sets

  • 8 Seated DB Press (40# DBs)
  • 10 Parallette Push-ups
  • 30s GHD Hollow Hold

Put feet up on a box for the push-ups this week and didn’t really feel any harder.

5:00 AMRAP

1-2-3-4-5…

  • Burpees
  • HSPU

Fucking terrible. I only got through 5 burpees and 3 HSPU this week. I’m not sure what happened but since doing the max deficits last week I’ve started to put my back up against the wall during the push-up. It’s really throwing me off, especially in the kipping reps. I was hoping to get more than the first week, but got an entire round less. Almost makes me wonder if I messed up my counts and did the round of 4 twice. I don’t think so, but it’s weird to be an entire round less an just a 5 minute workout. Oh well I guess. :-/

Not There

My body is definitely in vacation mode with this last week of work before break. Got to the gym around 9:30.

Strength

3 Sets

  • 8 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Back Squat

  • 5x20kg (pause)
  • 5×70 (pause)
  • 5×90 (pause)
  • 5×110
  • 5×120
  • 5×130
  • 5×135
  • 5×140

The pause sets were all for about 2 seconds. I really like using that during warm-up sets. Wanted to get at least 300 today and that was almost 309#. Put on the belt for the last 2 or 3 sets (don’t remember).

Skill WOD Hustle & Flow Week 3 Day 1

Warm-up

3 sets

  • 5 Bar taps – tight
  • 5 Bar taps – dynamic
  • 7 V-ups
  • 10 Pass-thrus
  • 7 GHD Heel Drives
  • 10 Bridge Rocks

Shoulder Activation

3 sets

  • 3 Scap Elevators
  • 3 Strict Pull-ups
  • 1 Scap Elevator
  • 1 Strict Pull-up

Could already feel the fatigue here.

Superset

5 Sets

  • 5 Butterfly Box Drill Circular Rotations
  • 1 Stop Strict Pull-up + 3 Pull-ups (butterfly drill)
  • 5 C2B Pull-ups

These were tougher than they should have been.

Skill Test

  • 3 Pull-ups + 3 C2B + 3 Pull-ups + 3 C2B
  • 2:00 Rest
  • 2 sets
    • 70% MAX C2B
    • 90s Rest

Wanted to increase again, up from the 15 last week. Got 16 on the first set, dropped after 10 on the second set, and did 6 more after a short break.

Strength Accessory

3 Supersets

  • 15s Underhand grip chin hang
  • 8 Supinated Bar Rows

Bonus Complex

  • 2 Strict Pull-ups + 2 Strict C2B + 3 K2E
  • 2 Sets: 3 Strict Pull-ups + 3 Strict C2B
  • 2 Strict Pull-ups + 2 Strict C2B

Coming into today I had already decided I wasn’t doing any bar muscle-ups unless it was banded to work on the technique and positions with a looser grip. Then going into the bonus I decided I was only going to do some strict work since I was feeling so beat. Had to try in that first set, but didn’t even go for the toes to bar. Got in a few sets of strict reps and got out of there.

I think only taking one day between the muscle-up day and the pull-up day is less than ideal. Too much pulling without time to recovery. My grip felt it today. The 100 American kettlebell swings yesterday may have played a role too. At least I didn’t rip my hands open this week. 🙂 Rest day tomorrow.

Weird December Weather

Middle of December and it’s 50+ outside. We even had thunder and lightning today. Was hoping to run but the weather had other plans.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 50 DU
  • 30 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 20 American KBS (53#)

Comes from the Long category on BTWB as a fitness level workout. Didn’t even realize we did it on the 14th of December last year. I screwed up and wrote 50 dubs on the board though when it should have been 40. I messed up way too many times with the rope. Did jumps and step-downs the first 4 rounds, but the middle left of my back was cramping up, so I did step-ups in the 5th round. All swings were unbroken. Time was 17:22, which is almost 1.5 minutes slower than a year ago. The 50 extra dubs wouldn’t make that much of a difference and I even broke up the swings in 3 of the sets last year. I did only do one round of jumps and 4 rounds of step-ups last year though so that’s likely where the difference came because I wasn’t resting in between movements.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 10 Weighted V-ups (20#)
  • 5/5 Wood Chopper Slams (25#)

Something different to get in some twisting motion.

Conditioning 2

3 Cycles

  • 2:00 AMRAP
    • 4 Pistols (alt)
    • 8 Push-ups
  • 1:00 Rest

Triceps burnt out fast after all of the dips yesterday. I did 4+11, 5, and 4+11.

Done in an hour today.

Gettin’ Gymnastics Volume

Woke up feeling a little beat from the PRs last night. Low to middle are of my back being the stiffest. Not the area where I’ve had my issues though, so that’s good. In at 11am to close out the 2nd week of the cycle.

Skill WOD (Hustle & Flow) Week 2 Day 3

Warm-up

3 sets

  • 5 Bar Work
    (Hold and pause 2 sec at each position with no form breaks and no momentum)

    • Dead Hang
    • Lat Active Hollow
    • Tight Arch
  • 1 Skin the Cat
  • 7 Straddle V-ups
  • 10s GHD Hanging Bridge Stretch

Skin the cats really stretch out that shoulder area.

Skill A – 4 Supersets

  • 1 Ring Swing + Pull-up w/ swing + MU
  • 2 Box Hip Kip Drill
  • 3 Banded Hip Drill

Felt a little better with the complex this week though I start swinging back with the pull-up and it messes up my kip a little. Didn’t feel as good with the box drill. Maybe I didn’t have the heights of things set right. The banded drill was better though.

Skill Test – 3 sets

1 rep of complex is:

  • MU + 2 Strict Ring Dips (after the MU dip lockout)

First two sets are 3 reps of the complex and then the 3rd set is for max reps. Increased from 5 to 6 on the max set.

Strength Accessory – 3 sets

  • 3 Lower to Hold Front Lever on Box

These are tough and doing 3 compared to 1 was a big difference in fatigue.

Bonus Complex

  • Set 1: 3 Ring Pull-up + 3 Toes to Rings + 4 MU
  • Set 2: 3+3+5
  • Sets 3+: Keep adding 1 MU until failure

Went for #6 on the 3rd set and squeezed it out. Caught myself in a super low ring dip, but a rep is a rep. Maybe next week if I get those first 3 sets I’ll go for a 4th.

Some nice increases from the first week and without having to figure out that first skill section we finished up in just under an hour. My shoulders still feel wrecked after all that though. I wore my leather grips for everything but the warm-up and no further damage to my hands. I just don’t have the grip problem on the rings like I do with bar muscle-ups.

Conditioning

Bryan and I jumped on the rowers for 10 minutes. Went 2,535 meters. Didn’t get into a good rhythm until the final 90 seconds.

Finally an Overhead Squat PR

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3×8 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • 3×5 Bar Taps

Overhead Squat

  • 3x5x45#
  • 5×75
  • 3×115
  • 3×135
  • 2×155
  • 2×175
  • F 195
  • 195
  • 205
  • 215
  • 225 (PR)
  • 235 (PR)

Started out with a close grip and the second 2 sets with the empty bar felt better than they ever have. Slowly moved out each set but was about 1/2 between my snatch and jerk grips with 175#. Then at 195# I was out all the way. I was pissed when I missed at 195#, but figured out I wasn’t tightening up my core after getting the bar overhead. I think I put on the belt with the second attempt at 195# and for the rest of the sets. 20# PR! Only took 26 months to get there.

Split Jerk

  • 5x20kg
  • 5×40
  • 3×60
  • 3×75
  • 2×90
  • 100
  • 105
  • 110
  • 115
  • 120
  • 125 (PR)
  • 130 (PR)
  • 133 (PR)

I thought I’d go big if things felt good. And they did! When we did those behind the neck jerks recently a light bulb went off and I figured out I was throwing the bar up too high and then it would crash on me most of the time. When it gets heavy it would cause me to miss. I was able to control my drive and upward momentum on the bar today and just kept going for it. Stayed with the 5 kilo jumps because the lifts were so easy. Ended up being about a 23# PR from the 270# C&J I just hit not too long ago. Now I finally have a little distance between my push press and my split jerk like I should.

Today was a rare treat. After over 4 years doing this, you simply don’t set 20+ pound personal bests and I somehow got 2 of them.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 12 Weighted GHD (20#)
  • 10 Parallette Shoot Throughs

Those shoot throughs are fun. Should work those in more often.

Front to Back

Again, planned to do 9am, but was up late playing an addicting stupid iOS game. Went to the 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Jumping Jacks
  • Zombie Kicks
  • Rack Stretch
  • Lat Stretch
  • Calf Stretch
  • 5 Back Squats (20kg)
  • 5 Front Squats (20kg)
  • 5 Front Squats (70kg)

Strength

8:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Front Squats (90kg)
  • 5 Back Squats (90kg)

Wasn’t going crazy being the 3rd day squatting this week and may do more tomorrow with Alex. Not sure yet. Legs are kind of smoked from the Air Dyne last night.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 8 Supinated Grip Pendlay Rows (115#)
  • 5 Evil Wheels

These rows felt really easy. I know they were light but maybe the pull-up work is already paying off.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Row (calories)
  • 1:00 Burpees
  • 1:00 Medicine Ball Cleans (20#)
  • 1:00 Rest

I did 27-25-26 calories on the rower and totaled 60-60-58 reps overall. Those med ball cleans suck ass but I kept moving the entire time each round.

Glad there was nothing I had to modify because it’s still hard to hang or pick anything up with my hands.

Unmotivated Morning

Took the complete rest day yesterday. Biceps were sore and then my lats were sore later in the day. Planned to do the 9am class this morning but woke up really tired and was moving slow. I was also a bit depressed I wouldn’t be able to deadlift heavy with my tore up hands. So I skipped out on class. Went in earlier than originally planned at night instead and did extra work after too.

Warm-up

3 Sets

  • 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Strength

Back Squats

  • 5x20kg + 5x20kg with 2 second pauses
  • 5×70 (2s pauses)
  • 5×90 (2s pauses)
  • 5×110 (2s pauses)
  • 3x3x130 (2s pauses)

Work my belt for the last 3 sets.

Skill WOD Hustle & Flow Week 2 Day 2

Warm-up

3 sets

  • 10 Pass-thrus
  • 10 Hollow Rocks
  • 10 Arch Ups
  • 10 Narrow Grip OHS (45#)
  • 10s Bottom of Dip Hold
  • 10 Bridge Rocks

Skill

4 Sets

  • Freestanding HS Hold practice
  • 16 Shoulder Taps (heels to wall)
  • 20 Shotguns (Shoot to hollow)

Realized I wasn’t looking down at the ground like you would in a handstand or when walking. Seemed easier when I did that and also helped make the shoulder taps easier too.

Skill Test

  • Find 1 rep MAX deficit strict HSPU
  • 3×4 deficit strict HSPU (3″)

I stopped after getting 11.5 inches. Probably did 5 or 6 other heights working up to that (all singles). The program calls for 3 sets of 4-6 at 70% of max height. Real funny! Tried 7″ and was already spent, so bumped it way down. Barely made it through sets of 4 at a little over 3″.

Strength Accessory

3 sets

  • 8 Seated DB Press (40# DBs)
  • 10 Parallette Push-ups
  • 30s GHD Hollow Hold

Jumping up to the 40# DBs wasn’t that hard. Will try the push-ups with feet on a box next week. The hollow hold still sucked.

5:00 AMRAP

1-2-3-4-5…

  • Burpees
  • HSPU

I got through the 4th HSPU in the round of 6 faster than last week, but failed on it and wasn’t going to try again with 15 seconds left. So -1 rep from last week. Didn’t do any of the deficit work last week and went heavier on the DB presses, so I’ll still call that progress.

Conditioning

Bryan and I got out the Air Dyne (AD2) for the good ol’ Air Dyne Hell. Don’t remember ever doing it on this model, so wasn’t sure what to expect.

E2M 20:00

  • 15s Air Dyne at 100%

I didn’t think it was too bad after the first round, but by round 3 the quads were burning. We totaled 512 calories between the two of us. Compare that to 273 and 287 calories Kevin and I did on the model AD6 before and you can see how different the computers are on the two models.