Year: 2017

Break From Basement Project

Working on a shop project all day, but took a break after 1 to get in a workout. Had to do some ankle dorsiflexion assessments. My right heel was 18.75″ from the wall and 19 on the right side. Not very exact on my measurements though.

Active Life – Single Leg Bias

3 Sets

  • 50m Farmer Carry (90# each handle)
  • 1:00 Rest

Nice enough to open the garage and walk and up and down the driveway.

Christmas Bow?

Then I had to retest and I got 18.5″ on the right and 18″ on the left. Got worse. Hmm, I tested in two different locations which probably had something to do with it.

Warm-up

  • 10 Bench Press (45#)
  • 20 Air squats
  • 10 Bench Press (95#)
  • 10 Goblet Squats (25#)
  • 5 Bench Press (135#)
  • 10 Goblet Squats (50#)
  • 5 Bench Press (155#)
  • 10 Goblet Squats (70#)

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

  • 100m Ski Erg
  • 5 Bear Hug Sandbag Squats (100#)
  • 5 Bench Press (155#)

Got through 10 rounds plus the ski and squats.

Active Life – Back Max

3 Rounds

  • 30m/30m 1 Arm Overhead Carry (50#)
  • 10 Alternating Push-up Shoulder Tap (3s pause at top)
  • 5 Strict Toes to Bar
  • 15/15 1 Arm Russian KBS (53#)

Back was tightening up whenever I sat down. The strict toes to bar are very difficult!

Active Life Membership

I forgot my sister was coming to town for the night so I decided to take a rest day yesterday. I saw that Active Life had memberships at 50% off for the year (making it $100), so I sent in some info about my back issues.

We see this a lot when athletes have a left-to-right imbalance (we call it a single leg bias) combined with poor midline stabilization and postural stamina.

To correct it we recommend our Bulletproof Single Leg Bias and Bulletproof Back Max programs.

Both are included in an Athlete Membership.

Link: https://performancecarerx.com/specials/

Do BP Single Leg Bias before you workout and BP Back Max after.

Try to get 3-4 BP Single Leg Bias and 4-5 BP Back Max sessions in per week.

When you finish BP Single Leg Bias contact us and we’ll help decide where to go next.

So now I have some homework! It’ll be easy to incorporate in my home workouts and I’ll get there early or replace the programmed warm-up when I attend class at the gym.

Active Life Warmup

  • 30s/30s Sciatic Nerve Flossing
  • 5/5 Stagger Stance Good Mornings (75#)
  • 30s/30s Sciatic Nerve Flossing
  • 5 Sumo Inchworms

Active Life Single Leg Bias

3 Sets

  • 6 Sumo Stance Good Mornings (75#)
  • 5 Box Hamstring Curls (24″)

Active Life Cooldown

  • Kneeling Heel to Butt Test
  • Prone Heel to Butt Test (Right Leg)
  • Prone Heel to Butt Test (Left Leg)

I wasn’t able to touch my heel to my butt, though I did have my shoes on if that makes a difference. Love those tight hamstrings. Was really quick to work through that stuff.

Warm-up

4 Sets

  • 30 Jump Rope + 10 DU
  • 3 Tall Cleans
  • 3 Power Cleans

I used 20-30-40-50kg.

Weightlifting – Power Clean

  • 2x60kg
  • 80
  • 90
  • 100
  • 105
  • 2 sets 110

I dropped every rep. Didn’t wear a belt at all and felt good. Super happy getting up to 242 pounds. I haven’t lifted that in a long time!

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP – Team of 3

  • Buy-in: 100 Dubs
  • One person completes an entire round while the others rest
    • 7 American KBS (62#)
    • 7 Row cals
    • 7 Burpees

I teamed up with Jason and Grant and I was first. Made it to 82 dubs and then missed 3 times! We were 1 rep shy off all completing the 6th round.

Active Life Back Max

3 Sets

  • 2x 10s/10s Standing Straight Leg Hold
  • 10 Lemon Squeeze
  • 10s L Hang
  • 10 GHD Hip Extension (2 second hold at top)
  • 20s/20s Samson Stretch

Brandi stayed and did this with me. Took about 18 minutes I think.

High 50s

My legs ached all day yesterday. You know that feeling you get when you’ve been walking the entire day? It was like that but more intense. I was tired from staying up late to watch Duke too, so turned it in to a rest day. Out in the garage today before a really late lunch.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Airdyne (0.91 mile)
  • 3 Sets
    • 7/7 DB OHS (40#)
    • 10 Glute Bridge (50#)
    • 10/10 Single Arm Single Leg DB RDL (40#)

I felt the warning signs in my back during the RDLs, so it was an easy decision not to back squat today like I had planned. I’ve learned my lesson a few times when I ignored that feeling.

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

  • 400m Run
  • 20 DB Push Press (40#)
  • 40 Air Squats

It was 59° outside so I changed my workout to do something with running. Thought I’d have to break up the push presses, but it turned out to be a pretty ideal weight for this. Finished 4 rounds, the run and 10 of the presses. Nice to be outside even though I’m so fucking slow.

13.4 Retest

Rest day yesterday and at the gym for noon today.

Warm-up

  • Dead Hang
  • Shoulder Mobility
  • Bar Taps
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • C&J
    • 6×45#
    • 3×95
    • 3×115

Conditioning

CrossFit Games Open 13.4 – 7:00 AMRAP

  • 3-6-9…
    • C&J (135/95#)
    • T2B

I 3 and then 3-3 C&J and then singles the rest of the way. Went unbroken through 9 toes to bars and then 7-5. Made it through 14 of the 15 clean and jerks, which is 1 fewer than the last time, over 2 years ago, and 8 reps shy of my best. I could improve my score by not taking that half step or so back after each rep with the barbell. Could have pushed to do the 12 T2B unbroken as well.

I had some nasty “Fran lung” after this one.

Strength – Front Rack Lunges

  • 3x10x135#
  • 10×155
  • 10×175

Felt good, even after the workout.

Midline & Gymnastics

3 Cycles

  • 4 Tabata Rounds – MB Sit-up (20#)
  • 1 Tabata Rest
  • 4 Tabata Rounds – HS Hold
  • 1 Tabata Rest

I did 10 sit-ups every round for a total of 120 and was able to stay on the wall for every 20 second block. I was putting my hands really close to the wall and able to keep my balance too. This did fry my low back.

Too Much Booty

Got in a workout this morning before leaving Rogers City. No warm-up.

300 FY

10:00 AMRAP

  • Airdyne cals

My plan was to start hot for 60-90 seconds and then settle in at 82-83 RPM. Worked out well and I set a PR by 7 calories. Got 365 and tallied 4.25 miles. Jumped back on for a slow 5 minutes to flush the legs and did 1.23 miles (60 cals).

Midline

Plank Holds (hands)

  • 4:00
  • 2:00 rest
  • 2:00
  • 1:00 rest
  • 3:00

The first 4 minutes felt easy. The last 1:30 of the 3 minute hold was a struggle.

Blew out a pair of jeans for the first time!

Thanksgiving Sissy

Nice rest day yesterday and beat the traffic. Had a bright idea to do the “Sissy Test” this morning, but left the kettlebell in my car overnight so I needed to warm it up first.

kb-heat.jpg

“Sissy Test”

  • 25->1 Burpees
  • 1->25 Russian KBS (53#)

Never stopped on the burpees. I started breaking up the swings around 18 or so because the handle was so sweaty and I didn’t want to drop it in my parents’ upstairs room. “Happy Thanksgiving, here’s a kettlebell through the ceiling.” Finished in 43:34 which is the worst I’ve done for this workout, but I’m also 20 pounds heavier than I last did it 5 years ago on Thanksgiving.

Bring on the feast!

50 C2B

Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up – 12:00

  • 250m Row
  • 5 Strict Pull-ups
  • 8 Bar Taps
  • 8 Burpees

Took my sweet time. Got through 3 rounds + 250 meters.

Gymnastics Test

  • 50 C2B Pull-ups

I’ve never tried this many chest-to-bar pull-ups straight. Thought sets of 5 would be good and I was able to get 8 sets before I went 3-2 and 5 singles. Finished in 2:40. Really got me breathing heavy.

Conditioning

  • 1,500m Row
  • 50 Thrusters (75#)
  • 25 Bar-facing Burpees

Just terrible. I even paced out the row, taking 6:10 (slow!), thinking the thrusters and burpees would be bad. I wasn’t prepared for how much I couldn’t breathe. Did my first set of 10 thrusters and quickly decided to go for sets of 5 and try to keep rests short. Well, the rest were not short. I pushed a final set of 10 to finish after 6×5. The burpees were another world of hurt. After 10, with it still being over 50% of the way I told myself to pick it up and get the damn thing over with. Still wasn’t moving fast by any standard but moved with a little purpose. Finished in 13:25.

Thrusters and burpees are bad enough, but then that long row to start is just nasty.

Accessory – 3 Sets

  • 10/10 Half Kneeling Bottoms-up KB Press (26#)
  • 10 Ring Rows
  • 1:00 Plank

No issues with my right shoulder. I couldn’t do those presses a few weeks ago, so it seems to have healed up.

Definitely need the rest day tomorrow.

Regional Inspiration

Definitely feeling some different muscles from the movements in yesterday’s aerobic work. Out in the garage before a company townhall at lunch.

Warm-up – 2 Sets

  • 3/3 Turkish Get-ups (40#)
  • 10 Glute Bridges (40#)
  • 5/5 DB OHS (40#)
  • 10/10 Single Arm Single Leg RDL (40#)

Feeling good with this stuff. Hopefully it’s making a difference.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 28 Pistols
  • 15 Sandbag Cleans (100#)

Last week I saw someone post about 2016 Regional event 4, which used 115# power cleans and had a 10:00 time cap. I wanted to get in some sandbag work so I came up with this modification.

I wore my belt for the entire workout, though I loosened it in round 2 I think because it was pinching my abs on each clean. Pretty gassed with fatigued legs in round 2, so after that was just a grind. Tried to keep bending over to pick up the bag. Yes you throw it over your shoulder for each rep. I tried to remember to alternate shoulders for balance. Finished in 18:09.

Getting Close

Yesterday I drove to my brothers and helped with some wiring. By the time I got home it was dark and snowing so I didn’t feel motivated for a workout. Went to the gym at noon with the crew.

Pendlay Rows

  • 2x10x45#
  • 2x10x95
  • 2x10x115
  • 10×125

I used a supinated grip.

Conditioning

30:00 EMOM (alt with 45s work & 15s rest)

  • Bear Crawl
  • Dead Hang
  • Side Skaters
  • 1-arm KB Thrusters (26#)
  • Plate Hops (45# plate)

Might feel all those bear crawls. Was able to hang on to the bar for the full 45 seconds each set. Did 10 thrusters per side each round and then 11/side in the final round. The plate hops were more tiring than expected.

Midline

4 Rounds

  • 10 Hollow Rocks
  • 10 V-ups
  • 10 Tuck-ups
  • 10s Hollow Hold
  • 1:00 Rest

Was really getting ugly in the 3rd round and I had to give it for a quick rest after 6 tuck-ups in the final round. Getting close to unbroken all the way, but don’t want it to be a complete shit show either. Finished in 6:11, which is a best by 5 seconds.