Month: February 2019

Dead Shoulders

Feeling a little rough from yesterday, especially my shoulders. My legs are nearly recovered from Sunday. We got snow last night and this morning, so I shoveled the driveway for a half hour today. Made it to the 4pm class.

Warm-up

  • 5 Inch Worms
  • 5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Press
  • 5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Press in a Quarter Squat
  • 5 Snatch Grip (Behind the neck) Sots Press
  • 5 Squat Jumps
  • 5/5 Cossack Squat
  • 5 Hang Muscle Snatch
  • 5 Hang Power Snatch

All with 45#.

Weightlifting

10:00 EMOM – Hang Power Snatch

  • 3×65#
  • 3×85
  • 3×105
  • 3×125
  • 6x3x135

Didn’t feel like pushing it today with so many snatches coming up and my shoulders beat up from muscle-ups.

Conditioning

  • 6:00 AMRAP
    • 30s Airdyne (AD2)
    • 6 Hang Power Snatch (95#)
  • 3:00 Rest
  • 6:00 AMRAP
    • 30s Airdyne (AD2)
    • 6 Hang Power Snatch (75#)

It was programmed as 10 calories on the bike, but the Assault Bike was taken so I figured 30 seconds on the Airdyne would be good. The monitor was unplugged for some reason, but I kept a pace similar to what I’ve been doing at home on my recovery days, about 75 RPM. I scaled the loading down from 115-95 so I could cruise with the barbell. In the second AMRAP I didn’t even dip the bar back down to the hang position and went right from the bounce. I got exactly 6 rounds and then exactly 7.

Really glad I scaled back on the loading today. I was able to keep moving through the workout and no reason to chance an injury during Open season.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curls – 21s

  • 3 Sets of 7-7-7 @ 20#

Felt easier than Sunday with 15-20-20. Maybe my biceps are growing.

Skill

Stayed for more handstand walking but wasn’t feeling as good with it today, probably due to fatigued shoulders. I did make it past 10 feet several times and out to a new PR of 18 feet. Getting started seems to be my biggest struggle.

Looking forward to seeing what is announced for 19.2 tomorrow night.

15 Feet

My lower body is still really sore from Sunday.

Warm-up

9:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 10 Box Step-Ups (20-24-27″)
  • 10 Banded Good Morning
  • 20s Row

6:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 1:00 Row
  • 5 False Grip Ring Row (feet under me to cut down on weight)

Damn the false grip hurts!

Conditioning

E5M – 4 Sets

  • 500m Row
  • 15 Box Jumps (30″)
  • Max Muscle-ups

My goal was 3×4 muscle-ups each round, but I had a suspicion that hip fatigue would kick in from the rowing and high box jumps. Well, I’m not sure if that was the case or it was the breathing, because after round two my pace fell off a lot. I rowed 1:50-1:51 for the first two rounds and then 2:00 was a struggle for the last two. I stepped down from the box for most of the first two rounds and jumped down after that (no rebound though). On the rings I went 4-4-4, 4-4-4, 4-2-2-2, and 4-2-1-1 for a total of 42 muscle-ups. I don’t think I’ve ever accumulated that many in a workout. After finishing the box jumps I walked right over and jumped up to get that first set at fatigue and I’m really happy I was able to start with a set of four each time.

No grips (have never needed them on the rings) and no rips. The big blood blister from last Tuesday is healing well.

I think this was the end of my first set…

Skill

I did some handstand walking after class. I went 10 feet a bunch of times after just getting it on Sunday for the first time. Even got over 15 feet once! It’s feeling a lot more comfortable.

Here’s one of the times I went ten feet…

Motor Monday

My ass was starting to get sore from the lunges last night already and it’s kicking in today. My quads are feeling squats too.

Motor Monday

E2M 10 Rounds (alt)

  • 40 cal Airdyne (AD2)
  • 24 cal Ski Erg

After rowing for 19.1, I wanted to give the movement a rest in this week’s aerobic work. The idea with this one was 90 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest for both machines, which was based on 73 RPM on the Airdyne and 960 cal/hr on the Ski Erg.

Side V-ups from Kari Pearce

My quads are a little sore, but still feel pretty good.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Dead Hang
  • 10 Walking Lunges
  • Back Squat
    • 10×45#
    • 5×95
    • 5×135
    • 5×165
    • 5×185

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Back Squats (205#)
  • 50′ Single Arm Overhead Dumbbell Walking Lunges (50#)

That got the heart rate up!

Conditioning

30-20-10

  • Dumbbell Power Snatches (50/35#)
  • Toes to Bars
  • Pistol Squats

Unbroken on the snatches and all sets of five for toes to bars. Pistols were shaky and slow with my back a little tight and just having done back squats. Can tell I haven’t done them in a long time. Grabbed my foot on each rep to help with balance. Squatting on my right leg actually felt fine, but I was unstable on the left. Finished in 10:19.

Midline

4 Rounds

  • 10/10 Side V-ups
  • 10/10 Leg Circles
  • 10/10 Wood Choppers (25#)
  • 20 Plank Jumps
  • 20 Flutter Kicks

B came up with this. The side v-ups were an idea from Kari Pearce.

The combination wasn’t as tough as I expected because the movements didn’t interfere with each other and we could keep moving. Good to hit more side action though because we don’t do much of that for our core in Crossfit. I finished in 12:40.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curl – 21s

  • 7-7-7 @ 15#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#

Felt a little easier than the other day with these same weights. All 20s next time.

Skill

Did a few handstand walk attempts. Got over 10 feet for the first time and ended there since it was already 90 minutes at the gym.

Done Early

My neck and low back are a little tight from looking up at the wall for 152 reps. My shoulders are a little sore too, but my lower body seems fine so far. I set an alarm to get up for the 9am class since my rest schedule is changed for the Open.

Warm-up

5 Rounds

  • 1:00 Run
  • 3 Strict Pull-ups
  • 5 Push-ups
  • 10 Air Squats

I started to feel my legs more every set of squats.

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×165
  • 5×195
  • 5×215
  • 5×230

I hadn’t looked at my logs since the workout went up after getting to the gym, so I couldn’t remember what I’ve been lifting. Nice surprise to smoke the 5×215 I did a month ago. Gains baby! We were on a clock, so maybe working up with fewer sets made a big difference.

Conditioning

6 Rounds

  • 50s Double Unders
  • 10 Push Jerks (115#)
  • 30s Plank
  • 10 Ring Rows
  • 20s Hollow Hold
  • 10s Bent Hollow Hold

This was really an alternating EMOM with 3 stations, but it was easier to record on BTWB like this. I started with a nice set of 75 double unders, but missed a couple of times in most rounds, so was usually getting 65-75 reps in about 45 seconds due to transition time. The push jerks weren’t too bad and the ring rows felt really solid. This workout got a lot sweatier than I was expecting because there really wasn’t any rest with the holds.

I wasn’t excited about moving so early, but it feels good to have a workout done for the day.

19 Point One For the Tall Guys

What a shit show the announcement was last night, hey?! The first workout last year was my favorite Open workout of all time and this one looked like a similar feel; keep working.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Passes
  • 1:30 Row
  • 8 Groiners
  • 5 MB Front Squats (20#)
  • 5 MB Press (20#)
  • 5 MB Tricep Extensions
  • 1:00 Row
  • 5 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Conditioning

Open Workout 19.1 – 15:00 AMRAP

  • 19 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 19 cal Row

On paper I liked it and it looked like a good one for me. Based on some workouts over the last few months I was confident I could go unbroken on the wall balls deep into the workout and had a general idea of my pace for the rower. I set my goal on 7+ rounds.

I set my rower parallel to me, right behind the wall so all I had to do was turn around, step over, and sit down. No wasted transition movement.

I started off at 1,200 cal/hr in round 1 and fell slightly off that. Over the course of the workout I might have averaged between 1,100 and 1,150. I did take a few slower pulls every round to take some deep breaths before kicking it up a gear, so I guess my average was probably lower. Right on the wall balls and unbroken even round without any issue. The last few rounds got annoying but I wasn’t really in danger of dropping the ball and my height was solid.

Finished with exactly 300 reps, which was 7 rounds plus the wall balls and 15 calories. So close to 8, but beat my goal by a nice amount.

19-1-score

Not sure I could have pushed any harder on the row without having to slow down in transitions or break up the wall balls and that’s the only place where I could have made up any time. Maybe I could have done the first 2-3 rows at a faster pace? This was definitely one of my favorite Open workouts, but I think I liked 18.1 better with three movements even though it was five minutes longer.

It’s a Trap

My shoulders and wrists are sore from the handstand walking and my traps are really sore from so many cleans.

Warm-up

8:00 AMRAP

  • 10/10 Kroc Rows (25#)
  • 10 Weighted Step-ups (24″, 25#)
  • 5/5 Single Arm DB Push Press (25#)
  • 10 Alternating DB Hammer Curls (25#)
  • 30s Hollow Hold

Did two rounds plus the Kroc rows and 7 step-ups.

Skill

We had 10 minutes to work on handstand related stuff (hold, press, walk), so of course I practicing my walking. And yet again, the programming spends a good portion of class fatiguing the movement most important in the conditioning piece. I feel like they are trying to trap you! Maybe this stuff is going to pay off in the Open, but just seems so odd and is completely different from any other program I’ve seen. I didn’t make too many attempts with so many handstand push-ups coming up and I was tired from last night, but I did get out to 8-10 feet a couple of times.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 500m Row
  • 14 DB Step-Back Lunges (50# DBs)
  • 14 HSPU

My goal was 1:50-1:55 on the rower, unbroken lunges, and break the handstand push-ups into 8-6. I figured rounds would take around 3:30. Screwed up the order right off the back and did my 8 HSPU before the lunges. Whoops! No I didn’t do them over again. 😛 I finished at 17:54, so my guess was pretty damn close because a 3:30 average would have been 17:30. The lunges were much easier than I expected. Pushed hard to keep my pace on the rower. Here are my splits:

  • 1:50.1
  • 1:51.0
  • 1:51.2
  • 1:51.6
  • 1:51.7

A 1:50 pace equates to about 1,200 cal/hr, so it’s good to know I can stay in the ballpark during a longer workout. If I would have started each row better I think I would have been much closer after the first one too.

Accessory

Dumbbell Curl 21s

  • 7-7-7 @ 15#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#
  • 7-7-7 @ 20#

It was time to bump up the weight from 15-15-20 and the third set was pretty tough. Even with this bonus work I was still done before the 5pm class started.

Ready for the rest day!

Turn Out

Went out for a huge dinner at the Japanese steakhouse last night. Not sure it counts as a full-on cheat meal because it was pretty much all whole foods, other than the green tea ice cream. It’s an insane amount of food and some of the sauces probably weren’t great.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Row
  • 5/5 wrist circles
  • 10 elbow punches
  • 5 inch worms
  • 10 clean deadlifts (45#)
  • 20 mountain climbers
  • 5 high hand clean pulls (45#)
  • 5 hang muscle cleans (45#)
  • 10 alt cossack squats
  • 5 power cleans (45#)
  • 10 lateral jumps
  • 5 power cleans (95#)
  • 3 power cleans (115#)

Weightlifting

10:00 EMOM – Power Cleans

  • 3×135#
  • 3×155
  • 3×165
  • 3×175
  • 3×185
  • 5x3x205

Screwed up with going to 165 when I should have gone to 175 so then I’d naturally get to 195. Instead I figured it out right before it was time to start the 5 working sets and had to make the 20 pound jump. Did every set touch-n-go. Tighted up the belt with 165 I think.

Conditioning

30-20-10

  • Burpees Over the Bar
  • Power Cleans (135#)

Flew on the burpees to get a really nice lead and was able to catch up during the 20 burpees as well. Went with two sets of five but then bitched out, doing singles for the last 20 and all singles for the set of 20. Thought I might be able to get through 10 unbroken, but at four I knew I wouldn’t make it so did 2×5. Finished in 9:10.

So many cleans today! Oh, I wore a glove on my right hand to protect where the blister was yesterday. I prefer to keep the skin on it as long as possible because it helps with healing.

Midline

3 Sets

  • 10 Evil Wheels

These are really easy now at my lighter weight. Maybe I’ll start adding a pause at extension; I’ve done that before and it definitely ups the difficulty.

Skill

Asked Molly for some tips and she gave me a few things to work on. Turning my hands out made a huge difference and I was consistently able to go five feet on the open floor. I tried doing some one arm holding on the wall but it’s really hard for me to lift one arm up and then hold unless I’m doing shoulder taps.

My wrists and forearms started to burn from all the attempts, which was more volume than I’ve been doing. I was just so excited to finally be getting five feet at a time.

One Extra = One Too Many

Last night my legs felt really heavy. Probably from the thrusters and single leg deadlifts, but possibly also a bit from Saturday’s work on the Airdyne and rower. Today I posted about weeks five and six of calorie counting. Our buddy Bryan was in town today, so we had a bro sesh.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Passes
  • Kip Swings

Gymnastics

E50S – 8 Sets

  • 5 Bar Muscle-ups

Wore my newer set of Bear KompleX grips today and they are much better for bar muscle-ups, which is good to know. Felt really good on every set and even better than when I did this many EMOM a couple of weeks ago. Improves my 30 rep time to 4:27 and 40 to 6:07 compared to 5:17 and 7:16 doing it as an EMOM.

After we finished I was helping someone else and did one more bar muscle-up with my grips off. It was enough to blow out my hand and I got a huge blood blister! I’m still so pissed it happened from that one rep. I hope it heals fast and there isn’t a bunch of bar work in Open Workout 19.1.

Weightlifting

Squat Snatch

  • 5×20 kg
  • 3×40
  • 3×50
  • 3×60
  • 2×65
  • 1×70
  • 1×75
  • 1×80
  • 1×85
  • 2 Misses @ 88
  • Miss @ 87
  • 87
  • Miss @ 88

Some old thing for me where I get it overhead without a problem but can’t stabilize it. Happy to make 87 though, which is 192 pounds. I haven’t done that since February 6, 2017 when I did 205.

Power Clean & Push Jerk

  • 3×60 kg
  • 3×70
  • 2×80
  • 1×90
  • 1×95
  • 1×100
  • 1×110

Squat snatches have historically aggravated my back and it was feeling tight, especially after several misses, so I didn’t even try to squat clean anything. Stay healthy! Felt pretty good with the cleans and push jerks. I did belt up for the last one, which is about 243 pounds.

Conquering a Weakness

My back did seem to loosen up for the rest of the day yesterday. Legs were feeling a little tired from the machines.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Dead Hang
  • Shoulder Stretching
  • Thruster
    • 5×45#
    • 5×95
    • 3×115

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 7 Thrusters (135#)
  • 14 Bar-facing Burpees

My goal was unbroken on the thrusters, keep a good pace on the burpees and not stare at the bar too long. Probably took more rest before each set of thrusters than I should have, but I almost got stuck in the last set, so maybe I wouldn’t have been able to stay unbroken. This had the feel of an Open workout and I’m very happy with a 6:25.

Can we get some heavy thrusters in this year? I’m extremely proud of how I’ve converted bar-facing burpees from a weakness to a strength over the last 11 months. It was always a movement I dreaded and led to some of my lower Open placements.

Was surprised how well I recovered and was able to start the accessory work 10 minutes after.

Accessory

3 Sets

  • 10 Supinated Pendlay Rows (95#)
  • 10/10 Single Leg Deadlifts (95#)
  • 10/10 Half Kneeling Bottoms Up KB Presses (26#)

Single leg deadlifts burn! The kettlebell presses were more stable than I ever remember them. Could have been because I was really warm from the thrusters or maybe not that my shoulders are healthy and I’ve been able to work them pretty hard.

Midline

E90S – 4 Rounds

  • 6 Floor Wipers (3 each side, 45# plate)
  • 20 Russian Twists (45#)
  • 30s Hollow Hold

Only 6 floor wipers each round was too few if you ask me. Didn’t think I would be able to hold the hollow for 30 seconds every round, but I was able to suffer through it.

Skill

Worked on my handstand walking again. First I did some holds near the wall, trying not to touch it. I feel like that gets me warmed up and used to the positioning. Then I did some walks up to the wall and finally some on the open floor. I came close to getting five feet a couple of times. Still work to do!

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s Double under
  • 10s Rest

Had one miss in round four or five. I feel like I’ve gotten slow with my dubs and that was evident when I only got 32 in the first round. After that I worked on speeding it up. Finished with 280 reps, which is a common number for me in this. My best is 286.