Month: January 2016

Burning Quads

Late night at the movies. Didn’t feel like leaving home to go to the gym this morning.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Bar Hang
  • Thrusters (45#)

Conditioning

E3M 15:00

  • 10 Thrusters (95#)
  • 10 Burpees Over Bar

Originally thought 115# but changed last minute. Was a good call because it allowed us to keep intensity high. I was flying trying to keep pace with Bryan no the thrusters and was rep-for-rep the whole way. Right on his heels with the burpees too. Was taking us about 38-40 seconds to finish.

Gymnastics

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 8 Pike HSPU (30″ box for feet, 2″ deficit)
  • 12 T2B

Not difficult but it’s good to do some lighter reps instead of strict against the wall. Toes to bar felt good and were all unbroken. Getting better at the re-grip in the middle of bigger sets.

More Conditioning

  • 25 Box Jump Overs
  • 25 V-ups
  • 50 Plyo Lunges
  • 25 V-ups
  • 25 Box Jump Overs

Went with side-to-side jumps to start. I think I took 3 sets for the first V-ups, 4 sets for the lunges, 2 sets for the last V-ups, and then did the last 25 jumps turning and facing the box so I wouldn’t trip over it. Finished in 6:26.

Tabata

  • Bottom-to-bottom air squats

Looks innocent enough right? Had never tried this before. It was horrible about 3 rounds in. I even sat down on my ass for a little bit in round 6 because the burn was so bad. I think I got 63 reps. Talk about pumped up quads!

Tall Reps

Was awake early. Got to the gym a little early.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Banded Back Mobility
  • Tabata Burpees (did 4 each round)
  • 2 sets of my Snatch warm-up routine (20kg)
    • 5 Muscle Snatch
    • 5 Snatch Press
    • 5 OHS

Tall Snatch

  • 2x3x40kg
  • 2x3x45
  • 2x3x50

Didn’t want to go heavy with my back still not fully recovered and I should be doing a lot more of these talls all the time. Held the bottom position for extra time on each rep as well as after standing up the last rep.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 6 Power Cleans (135#)
  • 6 Push Press (135#)
  • 12 Ball Slams (25#)

Much harder than I expected, mainly because it was push presses I think; push jerks are a lot less taxing. I did the first 3 rounds unbroken, but then had to drop the bar with 2 push presses left in round 4. Then dropped the bar after 5 cleans and did the 1+6 for the other rounds. Finished with 6 rounds, 6 power cleans and 1 push press. The ball slams were destroying me. Not a very good effort.

Get Upside Down

5 Sets

  • 30s HS Hold
  • 30s Rest

Got up nice and close to the wall and was doing well at pulling one or both feet off.

Did some more mobility work on my back to finish up.

Hangin’ Around

My back held up through the night and was ok in the morning again. Not 100%, but much better than early in the week. Went out to the garage around 3.

6 Rounds

  • 5:00 Air Dyne (AD2)
  • MAX L-Hang

Easy recovery pace on the AD. Was able to hold my feet up somewhat high on the first 2-3 hangs, but that quickly went away. Grip was the main limiting factor. My hangs were 32-35-36-30-32-33 seconds. Went 7.97 miles on the bike.

Little Bitch

No problems getting out of bed this morning! 🙂 Went in early before the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 500m Row

Then I was going for a new 1,000m row PR. I went out aggressive wanted to get my pace under 1:30 in the first 250 and then fall back. I did it, but after 500 started to really fall off the pace and feel terrible. I ended up bitching out and quitting at 740 meters. 😦 My average pace at the time was 1:32.7, so still well under what I needed to beat my previous 3:11. I’m kind of glad I stopped though because I was feeling it for about 15 minutes without even giving it that final 250 meter push. Some other day.

Strength

Bench Press (3-0-X-0 Tempo)

  • 3x3x45#
  • 3×95#
  • 3×125#
  • 3×145#
  • 3×165#
  • 3×185#
  • 3×205#

Not sure I’ve done tempo on the bench before. Felt solid.

Conditioning

  • 15-12-9-6-3 Burpees
  • 60-48-36-24-12 Double Unders

It was supposed to be burpees and pull-ups but I did a few pull-ups and it was pretty bad on my shoulder. So I went with 4x reps on the dubs. Missed once. Finished in 5:04.

Rested 3:00 and then did…

2:00 AMRAP

  • Burpees

Got through 38 reps.

Midline

10:00 EMOM

  • 2 Turkish Get-ups

I did 2 sets with 35#, 4 sets with 44#, and 4 sets with 50#.

Lauren was talking about doing something and Jason suggested my old favorite. So I whipped up a scaled version for her and jumped in.

“Annie”

50-40-30-20-10

  • Double Unders
  • Sit-ups

A few reps in I realized I forgot about grabbing DBs to anchor my feet down. If I had been alone I would have stopped. Makes a huge difference. I tripped up once starting the set of 30 because I wasn’t concentrating enough. Still not a bad time with a 6:24 though, which is 25 second off my best.

Best 12.3

metcon2

Still pretty much the same with my back. Went to the 5:30 class after waiting for the Nike Metcon 2s to arrive. They are a solid shoe and seems like they improved the areas that broke down on people that had the Nike Metcon 1s. For $130 though, I’m not sure they are a better buy than the new Reebok CrossFit Sprint TR, which is only $100 or even the Reebok CrossFit Nano 5 for $120. All 3 are great shoes though and you can’t go wrong with any of them.

Since I was a few minutes late to class I didn’t really do much to warm-up other than some bottom squat hold and PVC pass-thrus.

Strength

Bulgarian Split Squats

  • 2 Sets of 8/8 holding 35# KBs
  • 2 Sets of 8/8 holding 44# KBs

Class was doing deadlifts but those were a no go for me. Had my foot up on the Rogue bench.

Conditioning

With not being able to test out 13.2 on Sunday, I was hoping I’d be able to hit this one.

CrossFit Open Workout 12.3 – 18:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 12 Shoulder to OH (115#)
  • 9 Toes to Bars

I did all step-ups and all push jerks in unbroken sets. T2B were unbroken through 5 rounds I believe, but it might have been 4 rounds. Then I’d do them in 2 sets until the final round where I did 3 quick sets. Finished with 9 full rounds plus 12 step-ups, which beats my best of 8 rounds + 17 reps. I did an extra step-up in the first 3 rounds too because in my head I was thinking it was 18 for some reason. Dummy! Can’t count them though. :-/ In the 2012 Open my score was only 5+21 on this.

Stuck around and did some banded stuff that’s supposed to take pressure off the low back and reset some things.

Also got the new 3rd edition of Greg’s book, which I’ll call the Weightlifting Bible. Won it in a Twitter contest. At 588 pages plus the appendix this thing is a monster.

weightlifting-bible

Stayed Home

Woke up this morning with no improvement in my low back. The morning is the worst part of the day though because it’s hard to get out of bed. Have been icing a few times a day to try and help. Planned to go to the class at CrossFit Intuition today, but decided to stay home so I wouldn’t try to deadlift in the programmed metcon. Went out to the garage around 5pm and warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Strength

5 Sets

  • 10 Seated DB Press (50# DBs)
  • 10 JM Press (60# – safety bar)

I had looked up this video but forgot how to properly set up with that bar. Oh well, I’ll fix it next time. I’m sure I still got some use out of it. Those seated presses were rough for the 10 reps.

Conditioning

Saw a neat VO2 Max workout on Aerobic Capacity this week with options for running or rowing. Easy enough to use on the Ski Erg as well, so that’s what I did.

  • Part 1 – 4 Sets
    • 500m (@ 2k PR pace)
    • 1:00 Rest
  • 5:00 Rest
  • Part 2 – 4 Sets
    • 125m (@ 100%)
    • 15s Rest
  • 5:00 Rest
  • Part 3 – 4 Sets
    • 250m (see below)
    • 30s Rest

The meat of this workout comes in part 3. To figure out the pace, you take the average pace from part 1, add the total time from part 2, and divide by 2. So for me it was 1:55.3 + 1:40.3 / 2 = 1:47.8.

My 500s were 1:55.3, 1:55.1, 1:55.3, and 1:55.3. I went below my best recorded 2k because I’m sure it’s not very accurate. The 125s were 24.7, 24.7, 25.5, and 25.3. Those 15 second rest periods were way too short! Finally the 250s were 53.8, 53.7, 53.7, and 53.5, all below the goal pace. I thought I might end up outside puking. This workout was much harder than I was expecting. Didn’t adjust the rest periods though maybe should have since can’t go as fast as the rower.

Finished up with 2 sets of 10 Heel Drives on the GHD.

Ten By Tens

Last night my tight back started to turn into a back tweak. Grrr! I could barely get out of bed this morning. So much for doing Open workout 13.2 like I’ve been trying to plan and looked forward to. I even got to the gym about 30 minutes early to do some mobility and see if I could loosen things up enough to be able to do the deadlifts and box jumps.

Warm-up

3 Rounds

  • 10s Bar Hang
  • 5/5 Bar Taps (tight/dynamic)
  • 10 Heel Drives
  • 20s HS Hold
  • 30 DU

The dubs were not fun so I knew right there I should not attempt the workout. So I jumped in with Bryan on some bench while everyone did the metcon. I also did some mobility stuff I’ve found for relieving low back pain.

Strength & Accessory

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 10x10x155

Barbell Curl

  • 8x10x45#

The curls were alternated with the sets of bench.

Midline

5 Rounds

  • 20s L-hang
  • 20s Rest
  • 20s HS Hold
  • 20s Rest

Skill / Midline

3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Shotguns
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 1:00 Pistols
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 1:00 Step-ups (20″)
  • 1:00 Rest

I didn’t think I’d be able to do the pistols because they usually put a lot of stress on my back, but they were fine. Subbed in step-ups instead of the double unders I had programmed. I did 37-39-37 shotguns, 20-22-20 pistols, and 22-24-25 step-ups.

Wanted to get my heart rate up a little so I stayed after.

Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • 200′ Shuttle (4×50′)
  • 10 Shoulder Press (65#)

Oh boy, my shoulders and chest are going to be feeling it after these and the bench press sets. I did the first 5 sets unbroken, then broke up the sets in half until grinding out the final set. Took me 9:24 to finish.

Did a little more mobility work before heading home.

Triple Digits

Big day! Alex got a few guys together to throw down before his meet next weekend.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3 Sets
    • Bottom Squat Hold
    • 8 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • 2 Sets
    • 5 Muscle Snatch (20kg)
    • 5 OHS (20kg)
    • 5 Snatch Press (20kg)

Snatch

  • 3x40kg
  • 3×50
  • 2×60
  • 2×70
  • 75
  • 80
  • 85
  • 90
  • 95
  • Missed 2x @ 98
  • 100 (PR!, had to be around 8 attempts before finally getting it)

I was getting the bar overhead without a problem and almost had it locked in several times. Finally nailed it!

C&J

  • 3x70kg
  • 3×80
  • 2×90
  • 100
  • 105
  • 110
  • 115
  • 120
  • 125
  • 128 (missed clean on first attempt, made next try)
  • 131 (Clarked)

My low back was already feeling really tight from the snatches so I wasn’t expecting much out of the clean and jerk. It wasn’t painful though so I was still able to lift some weight. Figured I’d take one shot at the PR but I didn’t even try to get under it. Guys said the bar was up to my chest. Typical!

A Squat PR!

Went in early so I could start squatting before the 4:30 class so I’d have more time.

Warm-up

2 Rounds

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)
  • 20 Walking Lunges

Strength – Front Squat

  • 5×45#
  • 5×135
  • 5×205
  • 3×245
  • 2×275
  • 2×295
  • 1×315
  • 1×330 (PR)
  • 1×345 (PR)

Finally a squat PR! That was definitely all I had because I was damn near at a complete stop in the middle, or at least it felt like it to me. PR by 25#.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 3 Handstand Push-ups
  • 5 Overhead Squats (135#)
  • 10 Deadlifts (135#)

This triplet really lit up the low back. All unbroken. Finished in 3:41.

Accessory

E40S – 5 Sets

  • 10 Push-ups

E40S – 5 Sets

  • 10 Push-ups
  • 10 Air Squats

Was supposed to be 30 seconds but the clock was messed up so we got the extra 10. Was going easy so I added the air squats in the last 5 rounds. Every set was unbroken.