Month: February 2017

2ewsday Substitutions

Last night I was feeling wrecked after the workout, which didn’t even seem like much compared to some of the days we’ve had in this program. My shoulders were dead and my energy levels were sapped! Shoulders are still feeling it today and my back is about the same as it was yesterday.

“2ewsday Mash-Up”

  • 21-18-15-12-9-6-3
    • Step-ups (24″)
    • DB Thrusters (40# DBs)
  • 10:00 Rest
  • 3 Rounds
    • 500m Row
    • 20 Burpees over Rower
    • 100 DU

The first part was written with Assault Bike calories again (like Saturday) and 95# thrusters. I didn’t feel like doing that many reps with the 50s, so I scaled back to 40s. It was a good call because it kept me relatively close to Bryan who was using a barbell. Because of the pairing with thrusters we didn’t use weights for the step-ups, but did go for the higher box. I did my thrusters in sets of 12-9, 10-8, 10-5, and the rest unbroken. The 40s were much easier than the workout we did last week using 50s, where we went up from 3 and I had to break up the 15 into 3 sets! Legs were really burning from this combination with the step-ups though. Took me 11:49 to finish, which I was pretty happy with. I don’t feel I took too long of rests between sets.

Recovered pretty well during the 10 minute rest, but didn’t want to go out too hard on the row, knowing we were in for a long one. I don’t remember my split but I think it was over 1:55. The burpees were fucking terrible and never seemed to end. My double unders were pretty good, able to do mostly sets of about 20 and a few larger sets. My second row felt awful. I wasn’t paying close enough attention but maybe a 2:04-2:06 and then picked it up a bit on the final one closer to 2:00 I think. I could be way off on those estimates. Finished at 40:23 on the clock for a time of 18:34 on part 2.

Got a little lung burn from this bad boy. Haven’t done a metcon that long where I was constantly moving.

Chesty Snatches

My back belt much better yesterday, but will take it easy this week. In early at 2pm with the guys.

Warm-up

3 Sets

  • 1 Legless Rope Climb
  • 8 Strict HSPU
  • 10 Squat Jumps

I did this warm-up since I was skipping the back squats. They had to do max reps at 70%.

Snatch

Work up to 3 sets of 5 @ 70%.

  • 3x3x45#
  • 5×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×155
  • 2x5x165

I did all powers to keep the stress of my back, which sometimes acts up in the bottom of the squat when snatching or doing OHS. The 155 is officially my 70%, but my snatch isn’t where it should be, so the extra 10# was no problem.

Conditioning

5:00 Cycles

  • Buy-in: 3 Rounds of “Chesty” before snatches
    • 5 C2B Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats
  • Snatches
    • 15 @ (135/95#)
    • 12 @ (165/115#)
    • 9 @ (185/125#)
    • 6 @ (205/135#)
    • 3 @ (225/145#)

One of those bonus round workouts we’ve seen in the open. You get a 5:00 clock to start and must complete 3 rounds of “Chesty” and the associated snatches to “earn” another 5:00. You can start on the next cycle as soon as you finish the snatches to try to get ahead of the clock, banking up extra time.

First three rounds were no issue, as suspected, though my squats were too slow. I thought about doing triples so started with a double at 135# and quickly changed to singles. Breezed through them. Next cycle of “Chesty” I was getting even slower with my squats and started using my hands to push off of my knees, hoping to save my legs some for the snatches. I could have changed the weight on the bar faster too.

The snatches with 165# were challenging, but I was still able to power each one, taking about 10 seconds per rep. Or at least that’s what I was seeing on the clock as I tried to rush the last 30 seconds. I finished 10 of the 12 reps. Needed to be there about 15-20 seconds sooner and I would have been able to move on.

Doing rounds of “Cindy” with chest-to-bar pull-ups was a fun twist and wasn’t causing me any issues. I don’t know I’d want to do it for a full 20 minutes though.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s T2B
  • 10s Rest

I did all sixes plus an extra 2 at the end last time we did this. Goal today was sets of 7 and initially I was even thinking 4×7 and 4×6 would be nice to accomplish. Got through the first 7 sets of 7 unbroken and hit my wall in the final set, having to do 4-2-1. 56 total reps, which is a 6 rep improvement. Makes a big difference when I can remember to keep my legs straighter. Muscle memory is still hard to overcome though.

Adjustments

Didn’t have a great time trying to sleep last night, but my back isn’t as bad as it’s been some other times. I was still able to roll over in bed relatively well. I did do e-stim and ice both last night and this morning. Made it to the gym at 10am.

Warm-up

7 Rounds (Strict “Cindy”)

  • 5 Strict *Chin-ups/Pull-ups
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 15 Air Squats

I switched every round, which came out to 4 rounds of chin-ups and 3 rounds of pull-ups.

Gymnastics

Yesterday I skipped out on what was supposed to be an EMOM up to 40 total muscle-ups, so wanted to get in some volume today. Decided to try bar muscle-ups, which I haven’t done in a long time.

  • E30S – 5 Rounds
    • 2 Bar Muscle-ups
  • E30S – 20 Rounds
    • 1 Bar Muscle-up

I had on my grips, but they turned out to be too grippy with as much chalk as I had on them. I still struggle stringing these together because I overgrip the bar on the swing down and do this weird thing with my knees up. After 5 sets I took off the grips and switched to singles. No problems getting up there, I just need to work on stringing them together and improving my kip cycle. As a comparison, two years ago I did 21 doubles going 45 seconds without failure. I had been working on the movement more back then though.

Conditioning

6 Sets

  • 400m Run Row
  • 1:1 Work/Rest

I fucked up looking at my average pace instead of time, so ended up taking an extra 20 seconds of rest each round. Whoops! My times were 1:21.4, 1:21.4, 1:21.3, 1:21.3, 1:21, and 1:18.8 with 500m/pace averages all under 1:42.

21-18-15-12-9-6-3

  • Assault Bike cals Weighted Step-ups (20”, 20# DBs)
  • Bar-facing Burpees

This was programmed with a 12 minute time cap and then do max reps 225# deadlift in the remaining time. Yeah…right! Took me 13:24 and pretty sure if we had an Assault Bike it would have taken me even longer. I picked step-ups at a substitute because I wanted something that would fatigue the legs similar to an air bike. It did the trick because the jumps over the bar were a lot tougher and never stopping on the step-ups kept the heart rate up.

Actually felt ok for me compared to what I remember 16.5 feeling like with the thrusters instead of step-ups. Kind of curious what I’d do in that workout now, but I don’t care to find out. Just like I said after doing it as 14.5, I never want to do that workout again. 🙂

That completes 5 weeks of the Hybrid Performance Method program and I’m still loving it. Thinking back on this week I did 86 (40 strict) handstand push-ups, 153 toes-to-bars, 60 (30 ring & 30 bar) muscle-ups, 174 bar-facing burpees, 140 push-ups, and 35 strict pull/chin-ups. My gymnastics should be better for the Open than they’ve ever been.

Damn Back

Complete rest day yesterday, but actually felt pretty good after so much deadlift volume. Couple guys are sick and one out of town, so I was on my own today.

Front Squat

Add another 0-5-10# for 3×6.

  • 6×45#
  • 6×135
  • 6×185
  • 6×225
  • 6×255
  • 3×255

Anndddd I tweaked my back on that 3rd rep of the 2nd set. Maybe I worked up too quick or maybe the deadlifts took a toll on me from Wednesday. Tried to stretch it out, but was what typically happens so felt fine as long as I didn’t get in certain positions. So no more front squats and no working up to a 2RM C&J. Wanted to see if I could do some of the other C&J work so I warmed up the movement.

C&J

  • 4×45#
  • 4×95
  • 4×135

Felt fine, especially if I kept good positions, so I strapped on the belt.

Barbell Cycling

E90S – 3 Sets

  • 6 TnG C&J (155#)

Actually felt better than 155 ever has for cycling reps. Compared to 135 it still feels awkward and much harder to re-hook grip the bar between reps, which I did about for about half of them. Took me 20 seconds per set I think.

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

  • 15 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 10 T2B
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 40s Airdyne (AD2)

Due to my back I took out the programmed 5 power cleans and put in the push-ups and Airdyne instead so I could keep moving for 20 minutes. All wall ball sets were unbroken without a problem. I did the toes-to-bars 5-5 every round and they actually felt really good. Push-ups were unbroken as well and I had an ok pace on the AD, but wasn’t pushing it. Finished with 7+18 and the AD said I did 106 calories. The WOD as written would have easily been 10+ rounds and it would have been nasty!

Excited I was able to do 14 sets of 5 T2B with no fatigue setting in. Didn’t wear any grips either. Granted it was a much longer workout so the time between sets was much more than the Tabata or EMOM volume work. It was a fight to try and stick to more of a straight leg kip; my body kept wanting to my do bicycle version. With the 73 reps and 80 the other day it’s over 150 T2B this week!

Skipped out on muscle-up work because everyone was leaving the gym and I didn’t want to do too much with my back. Will try to get them in tomorrow.

Pick Things Up

Owww! Feels like I’ve been run over by a truck, especially in my shoulders and upper back. Calves, legs, low back, biceps, and hands are all sore too. Another day at the gym though. I did some bottom squat hold, hammy stretch, air squats, and shoulder stretching to get a little loose.

Deadlift

Work up to 4×4 @ 80% and then add 5-10# to last weeks 20RM.

  • 8×45#
  • 8×155
  • 4×245
  • 4×315
  • 4×355
  • 4×385
  • 4x4x405
  • 20×295

Wasn’t sure how the 80% would feel but I made fine. Slightly shy of using the % off my all-time PR, but I haven’t pulled anything near that 515 in years. I decided to take a 20 pound jump on the 20 rep today. When I picked up the first rep I couldn’t believe how light it felt, but when I got to 5 I could tell it was going to be bad. In the last 5 reps I had to take it slower to make sure I got set and didn’t pull anything. What a burn!

Conditioning

15:00 EMOM

  • 14 Calorie Row
  • 35s Airdyne
  • 40 Double Unders

We took it easy here and used it as aerobic work. It did help to loosen things back up after the heavy deads.

7:00 AMRAP

3-6-9-12…

  • Dumbbell Thrusters (50#)
  • Deadlift (155#)

Since dumbbells are coming to the Open, figured we might as well get in some practice. The workout was written with 95# thrusters, so why not make it harder?! 🙂 Took my dumbbells to the gym and will try to use them here and there when they fit our workouts. Dumbbell thrusters are just as terrible as I remember. I did 3-6-9 unbroken, then 7-5 and 6-5-4. I was feeling the burn on the set of 12 deadlifts so did those 7-5 too like a pussy. Had to hold on to the bar in my set of 15 deads and really rush the last 5 reps, but made it just before the clock went off to finish the round of 15s. Probably not a very good score but I tied Bryan for once and it was good to get in some experience with the DBs. This was nasty after already having moved so much weight on the deadlifts.

Reality

My shoulders and upper back have felt beat up all day from last night’s workout. Not much of a warm-up today other than moving around a bit.

2ewsday Mash-up

  • 100 46 HSPU
    • 10 (-ish) Box Jumps (36 30″) at the start of every minute, including the first
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 100 Calorie Assault Bike Row
    • 20 Double Unders at the start of every minute, including the first

I thought maybe I’d scale down to 70 handstand push-ups, but would probably be a stretch since the aim of these workouts has been 10 minutes in length. No way we were doing 36″ jumps though; 30 inches was plenty!

Update: Turns out they fucked up the programming again and it was only supposed to be 5 box jumps to start each minute! Would have made a huge difference.

I started out with 10 jumps at 30″ and did 10 unbroken HSPU the first round, but could tell it was going to get horrible. Ten jumps again in the 2nd minute, but only 4 handstand push-ups because time was already running short. I dropped down to 8 box jumps from there and held the 4 HSPU, all unbroken. When I got through 10 minutes that was enough for me. I need to improve my kipping rhythm.

Nasty combination because the hips and low back were getting burned out by both movements. I completed a total of 84 box jumps and 46 HSPU. Would have taken me 6 more minutes doing sets of 4 to get to my 70, which I think was definitely possible. With the workout taking me almost 30 minutes yesterday I didn’t want something long again with even less rest in this.

Setup my area with a rower (no good air bike for this) during the 5 minute rest and got into it. Dubs were solid except for 2 false start misses. Took me 8:48 to accumulate the 100 calories of rowing.

Gymnastics

EMOM

  • T2B up to 80 reps

Skipped out on this yesterday, but I really need the volume, and since today was an “easier” day I wanted to get it in. My goal was to hold 8 every round, taking me into the 10th minute. I thought I was going to make it all unbroken after I got through the 7th set. Then I had to do 7-1 in the 8th minute. Finished with 5-3 and 4-2-2. So still was able to get in the 8 every minute, but couldn’t keep that many larger sets.

My shoulders are destroyed now!

Work-Rest

Feeling a bit tired today even though I got a great night of sleep. In later at 6pm.

Back Squat

Add 0-5-10 pounds on to last week.

  • 8×45#
  • 8×155
  • 8×225
  • 4×255
  • 3x8x285

I added 10# and it was rougher than I’d like. My quad does not feel very good.

Snatch

Work up to a 1RM.

  • 2x3x45#
  • 3×95
  • 2×135
  • 2×155
  • 2×175
  • 1×195
  • Miss-make @ 205
  • Miss 215
  • Miss 225

Wasn’t there today. The 215 really crashed on me and 225 was way out front.

Barbell Cycling

E90S – 6 Sets

  • 6 TnG Power Snatches (135#)

Was surprised to see it bumped up to 6 sets this week. Wasn’t an issue, but my thumbs got a little beat up from re-hook gripping the bar every rep. It was taking me 13-14 seconds per set. Really excited to test out “Grace” and “Isabel” sometime soon.

Conditioning

Alternating between 1:00 of work and 1:00 of rest until finished with the following chipper…

  • 90 Bar Facing Burpees
  • 60 Overhead Squats (95#)
  • 30 Muscle-ups

I scaled the OHS down from the Rx 115# because I was expecting the muscle-ups to take me a long time.

Wow! The rests kept the intensity high. I did 19-17-17-16-16 burpees and the final 5 plus 10 squats. I’ll take that consistency! To finish the squats I did 10-9, 10-8, and 13 to get a little extra rest. In fact I took an extra 1:00 of rest instead of just one here before getting up on the rings. Looking back, I wish I had even just got up there for a set of 3 after the halfway point of the work minute. Oh well, the muscle-ups went much better than I expected. I went 3-3, 4-3, 4-3, 3-1, 2-2, and 2. I really wasn’t planning on getting much more than 3 or 4 per minute heading in.

I wasn’t having a problem getting up over the rings, but my dip started to give out when I only got 3-1. I don’t think I’m kipping the dips much, if at all, and then when I need to kip I’m all out of whack. I’ve never done that volume of reps in a WOD, let alone at the end, so I’m seeing some nice progress.

Finished at 29:07 on the clock. And… wrecked! It was coming up on 2 hours of work so we decided to skip the 80 T2B EMOM. Grip and hands were pretty beat up already and that was enough work for one day. Maybe I’ll get in the reps tomorrow because I definitely need them. Have been eating a bit better, but I needed fuel after this one so made a stop at McDonald’s on the way home.

Rise Up

Rest day and I’m feeling great, but know what’s in store for the next 3 days. Figured I could get in some of the warm-up work I know we’ll skip tomorrow. So I laid a blanket over some of the pillows from my couch.

Landing on the cushy pillow was really nice, but the deeper angles on my wrists wasn’t feeling great by the end of the third set.

5 Sets

  • 8 Strict Handstand Push-ups

These have never felt so easy. The wider hand placement is making a huge difference for me.

GO FALCONS!

Sets of 5

Shoulders feel a little rough from last night. Doing the program by myself today with Bryan and Florida and Weston busy this morning. I got my DNA tested for 41 different fitness related genes and wrote about it on my main blog. Pretty neat.

Warm-up – 2 Sets

  • 5 Strict Pull-ups
  • 5 Strict Chin-ups
  • 20 Push-ups
  • 30 Air Squats
  • 40 Double Unders

No lifting today, but that sure doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 1,000m Row
  • 1:1 Rest

The program called for runs, but I’m not going outside in this weather! My goal was a 1:50 pace, which I was able to do. Even got faster each interval. Far from what I’ve been able to do on the rower in the past when I focused on it. My times were 3:39.9, 3:38.6, and 3:32.8.

For time:

  • 3:00 Air Dyne (AD2)
  • 45 Wall Balls (30#, 10′)
  • 45 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 120 Double Unders

The workout called for 60 calories on the Assault Bike, which I know is a lot harder than the AD2. My 3:00 substitution is probably on the easier side, but was plenty hard enough. I kept about a 75-80 RPM pace and tallied up about 80 calories. It was supposed to be all 90 wall balls with 30 pounds, which I fully intended to do.

I did two sets of 15 wall balls and started to hit a wall, even with longer breaks than I should be taking. Then I was down to sets of 5! I felt like quitting, so after 3 sets of those, I walked over and grabbed the 20# to finish the next 45, which I did 10-10-13-12. Getting started with the dubs was rough, but I settled in once I was able to get my breathing under control a bit. Finished in 12:06. Absolutely horrible. Wall balls after an air-type bike in nasty!

That finished my 4th week following the Hybrid Performance Method WOD program. It’s a pretty big time commitment, lot of volume, and a real gut check on days like today. It’s better than anything else I’ve ever followed though. The way the movements, days, and variety all work together has been really great. When the rest days come, I’m definitely ready for them, but at the same time I’m feeling really good and not running into back issues. Excited to see how we do in the Open.

So Many Cleans

All rested up! Skipped the epically long cardio warm-up that was supposed to be 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of row and bike. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Front Squat

Add 0-5-10 pounds over last week’s 3×6.

  • 6×45#
  • 6×135
  • 6×185
  • 6×215
  • 3x6x245

Not a fan of higher rep front squats like these.

C&J

Work up to a daily 2RM. Try to go 5-10 pounds over the triple from last week.

  • 2x2x135#
  • 2×185
  • 2×215
  • 2×245
  • 2×275 (PR)

Working up in fewer sets is nice, except we could feel our shoulders weren’t quite warmed up where they should be. Legs were great from the front squats. Thought I might try hitting 285, which is basically my max, but wasn’t feeling the jerks. Both jerks with 275 were pretty ugly. PR double though!

Barbell Cycling

3 Sets – E90S

  • 9 TnG C&J (135#)

These were fun! Took me about 26 seconds each set. Piece of cake compared to the 135 pound thruster intervals in the Thruster Attack program. Pretty much like a “Grace” with long rests.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

  • 11 Power Cleans (115#)
  • 7 HSPU

More cleans! Scaled the HSPU down from 11 reps and hoped I’d be able to do 4-3 each round. I started off with 11 unbroken cleans and said to Weston, “probably not doing that again.” Haha. I did the cleans in 7-4 for the next 3 rounds and then did 11 unbroken at the end so I could get back to the wall. Was able to do the handstand push-ups 4-3 the whole way and probably should have taken shorter rests or maybe tried some sets of 7 at the beginning. Scaling to 7 reps was good for me though. Finished with 4 rounds, the cleans, and 2 HSPU. It has been a huge difference going wider and putting more distance between my plates and the wall.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s T2B
  • 10s Rest

Originally thought of trying 4-4, but settled on sets of 6 to try to build volume for bigger sets. I was barely able to maintain that every round. Jumped back up in the final round and struggled to get 2 extra reps for a total of 50. I focused on keeping straighter legs today and not doing my bicycle style of toes-to-bars. Felt ok and hopefully that’ll make some difference.