Month: August 2017

Poor Effort

Was able to golf yesterday with no back issues in the swing. Could feel it a bit walking around, but nothing that affected my game. My legs are surprisingly sore from early in the week. Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (140#)
  • 5 Set of Complex
    • 3 Tall Cleans
    • 3 Hang Squat Cleans
    • 3 Push Press
    • 3 Push Jerk
    • 3 Split Jerk

I used 45# for 2 sets, 75 for 2 sets, and 95 for the last. Class was then going to an EMOM of heavy C&J singles, so I did the weekly challenge instead.

Weekly Challenge

  • 90s Assault Bike Calories
  • 90s Walking Lunges

Yep, the new owner, Greg, bought an Assault Bike for the gym. I tried to pace myself out, which didn’t work at all. That thing is completely different from my Airdyne AD2. I was doing about 82-83 RPM and my legs were blown out half way through. I only got 42 calories and then did 49 lunges. After some recovery I decided to go for 30 seconds since everyone was still on the lifts. My legs were blown out by 15 seconds! I got 28 calories though, which goes to show you have to go out hard and just hang on I think to get a good score. Maybe I’ll try it again tomorrow or Sunday.

Conditioning

  • 30 Burpees
  • 20 DB Snatch (40#)
  • 100′ Double KB Front Rack Walking Lunge (2×35# KB)

I was still not recovered from the AB, so my burpees were slowwww! Snatches were slower than normal because I could feel my back a bit. I finished in 5:14.

4x

  • 200m Run
  • 200m Walk

Fucking terrible! My calves were giving out in the last two runs.

Women’s Thrusters

My left hamstring feels odd today. Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (140#)
  • 3 Rounds
    • 200m Run
    • 10 Goblet Walking Lunges (35#)
    • 10 Glute Bridges
    • 6 Inchworms

Strength

I wasn’t front squatting, that’s for damn sure. So I did single arm kettlebell front rack squats.

  • 10/10 @ 35#
  • 3 sets 10/10 @ 44#

The left side of my back was not feeling great in the last few reps. Uh oh.

Conditioning

  • 25 Thrusters (75#)
  • 800m Run
  • 25 Thrusters (75#)

Programmed as 18 with 115# but not for me. I warmed up with the empty bar and the back felt ok, so I figured I could try the workout. I increased the reps since I was using teh women’s weight and made sure to do both sets unbroken. Should have tried to push the run a bit more. Finished in 6:20.

Accessory – 3 Sets

  • 20 Back Rack Walking Lunges (95#)
  • 10/10 Landmine Rows (60#, pause at the top)
  • 30s Superman Hold

I wasn’t sure about the hold since extension doesn’t feel the greatest some times. It was ok though. Had to split the hold into 20 and 10 seconds each time.

Double Scap

No golf again. šŸ˜¦ Out in the garage in the evening since there was a ton of barbell work in the gym programming.

Warm-up – 4 Sets

  • 10 DB Snatch (alt)
  • 10 Goblet Squats
  • 5 Scap Pull-ups
  • 5 Scap Push-ups

Used a dumbbell of 20-30-35-40# from set to set for both snatch and squats

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×75
  • 10×85
  • 10×95
  • 10×105
  • 10×110
  • 10×115

Definitely have a minor impingement going on in my right shoulder. I’ve done 125 before, but not today.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 10 Ball Slams (30#)
  • 5 Strict Chin-ups
  • 40 Lateral Hops

The gym workout was kettlebell swings (70#), chin-ups, and double unders. I’ve done some swings and dubs lately, so changed up the movements and stuck to the same rep scheme. Doing the chin-ups strict was a little twist I decided to do. I did them in sets ofĀ 5, 3-2, and then 2-2-1 for the last 3 rounds. Finished inĀ 6:06.

After a few minutes I jumped on the Airdyne at a recovery pace for 10 minutes and went exactly 3 miles.

It’s nice having my garage sensor running again so I could tell it was about 81Ā° in there while I was exercising.

3 Part Sunday

My back seems pretty much the same. Made it to the gym today though. Programmed something I could do. šŸ™‚

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (140#)
  • Dead Hang

Conditioning

Rested about 10-15 minutes between each workout.

  • 50-40-30-20-10 Double Unders
  • 25-20-15-10-5 HSPU

I went 9-8-8 on the first set of HSPU, which was maybe a little aggressive and caused me to have to rest more the rest of the way. I did the rest in all sets of 5 and really focused on a big kip with my hips to save my shoulders. Finished at 9:14.

25 Rounds

  • 2 Burpees
  • 2 T2B

I’d done this once before, almost 3 years ago in 6:08. Hadn’t looked that up until writing this though. Finished in 6:33 today. Could feel I was going a bit slower due to my back. A lot of hip action in this one.

2 Rounds

  • 25 Push-ups
  • 50 Air Squats
  • 25 American KBS (44#)

Felt like my arms would give out after the HSPU and burpees, so I started conservative with 9-8-8 on the push-ups. The squats bothered my back more than anything else today, so I took them really slow. Kettlebell swings were unbroken both rounds. I stuck to the same sets on my 2nd round of push-ups and probably should have pushed for 2 sets. Finished in 6:34.

Quite a bit of midline work today. Will see how my back feels tonight.

Press & Run

It was a good call to drop out of the golf tournament. I’m haven’t felt much different from Thursday all day today and I was really stiff this morning. Out in the garage around 6pm.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×165
  • 5×185
  • 5×205
  • 4x5x225
  • 7×225 (max reps)

Maybe could have gotten one or two more if I had someone here to spot me.

Accessory

  • 3×15 Shoulder IYT (CS purple)

Conditioning

Wanted to get in 30-40:00 run today. WentĀ 3.59 miles at a slow pace, which took meĀ 39:46.

Pulling Out Left

I golfed yesterday, but my back is still not great. I tried to get there early to hit the range, but there was nobody in front of our tee times, so we ended up getting off really early and I had almost no time on the range. I was favoring myĀ back and anticipating jolts of pain, so I kept pulling out of my swing and hitting everything left all round. This morning seems about the same as yesterday, so I pulled out of the club championship this weekend. Bummed! šŸ˜¦ With a 9am shotgun start both days, my back wouldnā€™t loosen up that early and it was not fun playing yesterday with the anticipation on every swing.

Today’s workouts for the gym had a bunch of barbell work, which Iā€™m not ready for. So I made some adjustments to yesterday’s programming and hit it out in the garage.

Warm-up

15:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 40s Jump Rope
  • 8 Ring Rows + 8 Push-ups
  • 8/8 Single Arm OH Lunges (35# DB)

I like these longer warm-ups. Really work up a sweat and get in more aerobic work.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

  • 50 Double Unders
  • 15 MB Cleans (20#)

I don’t know if I was favoring my back or what, but missed a lot on my dubs. Had a nice burn on the medicine ball cleans. Finished 4+9.

  • 5:00 Airdyne
  • 3 Rounds
    • 1,000m Ski (@ 5k pace)
    • 2:00 Airdyne

It was an easy recovery pace on the Airdyne, which was 55-60 RPMĀ for me. I decided on a 2:00/500m pace for the ski erg and kept to it, finishing each 1k in a split second under 4:00. Not an impossible pace for those intervals, but not completely comfortable either. Total time with transitions was 24:25.

An Even 20

Improvement today, but still didn’t feel up for swinging a club. I really wanted to get to the driving range. I’m golfing tomorrow if it kills me! Out in the garage in the evening, but trying to stick to the gym’s programmed workout.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 3 Sets
    • 20 H2H KBS (35#)
    • 5 Burpees
  • 400m Run

Accessory

E2M – 10 Sets

  • 30s Banded March (green + red bands, 55# plate)

Subbed this for 100ā€™ Double KB Front Rack Carry (50#). I didn’t want that much instability for my back. I really wanted to try marching with the 100# sandbag, but my back didn’t feel comfortable trying to pick it up.

Conditioning

Running clock…

@ 0:00

  • 20 cal Ski
  • 300m Run
  • 20 American KBS (53#)
  • 300m Run
  • 20 cal Ski

@ 12:00

  • 30-20-10 Air Squat
  • 30-20-10 DB Push Press (35#)
  • 15-10-5 Burpee Step up/down (24ā€)

The first part felt really good. I probably could have tried the prescribed 70#. Finished in 6:03. In the second part I subbed in the squats and push press for DB thrusters and step up/downs for box overs. Already putting enough stress on my back. Finished at exactly 20:00 on the clock, so 8 minutes for part 2.

Sit & Pull

My back is a little better today, but still not great. Out in the garage around 4pm.

Warm-up – 5 Sets

  • 10 Snatch Shrugs (45#)
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 20 Double Unders

The right shoulder was getting stuck from the work I did yesterday. Air squats didn’t feel very good to start, but loosed up a lot after the first two sets. Did them slow and controlled. Double unders were a bit of a challenge.

Accessory – 5 Sets

  • 10/10 Bottoms Up KB Press (20#)
  • 10/10 Landmine Row (55#)

Stayed light because I didn’t want to stress out my back. So I bumped up the set count instead of 3.

Conditioning

  • 36-24-12 Seated Rope Pull-ups (alternate hands every rep)
  • 30-20-10 KB Snatch (35#, switch arms every 5)

This was the workout programmed at the gym and it looked fun, so I wanted to do a variation of it. It was programmed with 6-4-2 (for men) rope climbs at 15′ so the pull-ups were my substitution. I tried to make sure I did 6 back-to-back before taking rests. Normally would have gone heavier on the snatches, but that was good for today with my back. I only took very short breaks to tighten the screw on my adjustable kettlebell. The original workout had a 12 minute time cap so my scaling worked well, finishing at 8:49.

Midline – 5 Sets

  • 20s Bird Dog
  • 10 Single Leg Glute Bridge
  • Switch sidesā€¦
  • 20s Bird Dog
  • 10 Single Leg Glute Bridge

Expected the bird dogs to be harder. The glute bridges were not the best choice and could feel them in my back more than any of the other movements from the day.

The Banded March

Last night I think I was already starting to feel some effects of spending an hour on the Airdyne. The front of my ankles were getting tight again and my right knee was feeling a bit weird. My back is starting to feel better today, but had to skip out on golf.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s Push-up
  • 10s Rest

I did 6 sets of 11, then 9, and finished with 8. For the sets of 11 I should have been doing 6-5 instead of 11 unbroken because I had a lot of rest time each set. It was all I had to squeeze out 9 and 8 on the final 2 rounds.

Accessory

  • 4×15 DB Curls (20#)
  • 100 Bench Press (45#)

I did the bench presses in 1:39 with short pauses at the top after 67 and 93 reps. Never set the bar down, which I was not expecting to be able to do.

The Banded March

I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time. Since I can’t handle loading my spine, I thought it would be a good way to work my lower body. I put a green band around pegs at the bottom of my rig and hooked up my dip belt. Held a 20# medicine ball at my chest and went for 5:00. Would be fun to try withĀ my new 100# sandbagĀ when my back recovers.

Conditioning

  • 5:00 Airdyne
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 5:00 Airdyne

I started out at 85 RPM. My legs were dying 2 minutes in so my pace slowly kept fading. Maybe I should have rested more after the march, because it felt like the lactic acid built up really fast. Managed to get 170 calories. On the second round I started at 78 RPM for 2+ minutes, picked up to 82 for a minute or two, then kicked it up with a minute left, and brought it home in the least 30 seconds. Got exactly 170 calories again. Not great on either interval considering I can do 340+ in 10 minutes.

During the Finals

My back started feeling worse last night and is definitely worse today. Didn’t loosen up as much as I did yesterday, but tomorrow should be on the recovery side from this tweak. Will have to miss golfing though.

Decided to jump on the Airdyne while watching the finals of the CrossFit Games and ended up going for 60 minutes! TotalledĀ 1,046 calories andĀ 17.64 miles.