Month: April 2020

First Back Squat Since December

Another early night in bed and another night getting a lot of sleep. Maybe I’m on to something. Out in the garage at 4pm.

Warm-up

  • Steamboats

Strength

  • 10 Back Squats (45#)
  • 5/5 Landline Rows (45#)
  • 10 Back Squats (95#)
  • 5/5 Landline Rows (65#)
  • 5 Sets
    • 10 Back Squats (135#)
    • 5/5 Landmine Rows (75#)

I haven’t done a back squat since December 23rd! Body didn’t know what to do, especially for 10 reps.

Update: not entirely true because I did light Bear Complex two weeks ago, which involves a thruster from the back.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 20 Push Jerks (75#, from the rack)
  • 20 Russian KBS (53#)
  • 20 HR Push-ups
  • 20 Plank Jumps

I did the jerks unbroken in the first two rounds and then rested it on my back after 10 reps in the final round. The push-ups got a lot harder than I expected. I think I started out 2×10 and then 4×5 the other rounds. Finished in 8:42.

Also did some floor and banded rehab, which I’ve been slacking on.

Point One Away

I did not sleep great on Sunday night and I’m sure having a large Coke from McDonald’s at 9pm was the main contributor to that. Yesterday I went out and messed around for 5 holes of golf. Felt great to be out on the course! In the afternoon I felt my pecs getting sore from the 100 toes to bars I did Sunday. My quads were still sore from Saturday too. Planned to do PT work, but it didn’t happen. Went to bed early again and got over 9 hours of sleep. Out in the garage at noon after my weekly video call.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Airdyne (63 cals, 1.58 km)
  • Monster Walks
  • Shoulder Press (done after row)
    • 10×45#
    • 5×75
    • 5×95
    • 5×115

Time Trial

250m Row

2020-04-28-250m-row

So close to matching my old 38.3 PR from July 2016. If I could have started like I did for my 100m PR the other day I would have had it. Thought about making a second attempt, but I was breathing hard for several minutes and decided to move on.

Strength

5 Sets

  • 5 Shoulder Press (130#)
  • 8 Lateral Raises (15#)

Felt strong throughout and was able to keep a solid core.

Conditioning

2 Rounds (2:00 work, 1:00 rest)

  • Strict Pull-ups
  • Squat Jumps
  • DU
  • Burpees

I got 29-27 pull-ups, 57-66 squat jumps, 164-176 double unders, and 34-39 burpees. The wind coming through the back door was messing up my rope, I shit you not! Took me until about thirty seconds through round two to notice. This has happened to me out in the driveway before. Thrilled for all the numbers to go up in the second attempts, other than pull-ups, which is understandable. For pull-ups I think I went 5-3-2 then singles in the first round and 7×2 then singles in round two.

Surprising Row PRs

I did housecleaning all morning and took a break around 2pm.

Warm-up

5:00 Airdyne (103 cals, 2.55 km)

Time Trials

My BTWB rowing speed scores are way off due to intervals counting, which throws off my fitness level, so I’m going to do some rowing tests this week.

Row

  • 100m – 15.1
  • 100m – 15.2
  • 1,000m – 3:09.9

That’s a PR for 100m by 0.4 seconds (back in Dec 2015)!! I used 7.5 on the damper first and then maxed it out to 10 on the second try. Reset it back to 5 for the longer row. I looked up my old 1k time, which was 3:11.2 from March 2015. So I set a goal to hold 1:35 as long as possible. Felt good at 500 meters and then it started to hit me with about 300 to go. Was able to hold on for a 1.3 second PR. I really didn’t expect a PR from either row. I’d say all of the single leg work is paying off since I haven’t done much rowing all year.

Really good splits for the 1k!! I was fucking wrecked after that and rested about a half hour!! Can you say Fran Lung?

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 25 T2B
  • 700m Run (around block)

The original version had 25 burpee and 20 toes to bars each round, but I adjusted after the rowing. Went for larger sets and surprised myself by being able to do 9-9-7 every round. First three runs were pretty chill and I picked up the pace on  the final one. Finished in 23:36.

Then I had a really late lunch and finished housecleaning.

Legs Legs Legs Legs

With a lot of reps on Tuesday and Thursday that hit the low back, I knew not to hit that area very much today. Didn’t sleep worth a shit, so I rested up, took a nap, and worked out in the afternoon.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Airdyne (97 cals, 2.48 km)

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 50 Lunges
  • 40 Air Squats
  • 30 Plyo Lunges
  • 20 Squat Jumps

I did this in 20:57 back on December 29th, a few days after tweaking my back. Tried not to stop much today and was done in 17:37!

That’s enough for today with how I’m feeling.

Fundraiser Workout Results

Results of Fundraiser workouts are in.

All Men

  • Workout 1 – 8022/42256 (81.0%)
  • Workout 2 – 2716/32689 (91.7%)
  • Workout 3 – 5321/24576 (78.3%)
  • Total – 3232/42822 (92.5%)

Masters 40-44 Men

  • Workout 1 – 909/6722 (86.5%)
  • Workout 2 – 181/5210 (96.5%)
  • Workout 3 – 638/4252 (85.0%)
  • Total – 308/6780 (95.5%)

Pretty happy with that, considering I started picking up weights two weeks ago, so I had to be very cautious with the first and third workouts. Will be fun to retest those in a few months.

Last night my forearms, elbows, and biceps were really getting tight and sore from the Wednesday pull-ups. My lats were already feeling it earlier that day too. Still pretty sore in all those places today. It was going to be a full rest day, but with the sun out I needed some air.

Run

In the afternoon I went for an easy 2.68 mile run that took 28:25. Felt really good!

Fundraiser #1

Great sleep and recovery, but my arms and back are sore from yesterday! Out in the garage at 4pm.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Airdyne (103 cals, 2.55km)
  • Monster Walks
  • DB Snatch
    • 5/5 @ 20#
    • 5/5 @ 35#
    • 3/3 @ 50#

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP – Support Your Local Box Fundraiser #1

  • 10 Air Squats
  • 9 DB Snatches (right, 50#)
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 9 DB Snatches (left, 50#)

I was afraid of so many snatches. That’s a lot of bending over that I haven’t been doing. I purposely started out slow to get a feel for it. When I get past the five minute mark I knew I’d be good and started to pick up the pace. Really should have gone faster on the air squats the entire way. Got through 7+10 (276 reps) and I’m pretty happy with that. My back will be tight tomorrow, but I didn’t have any pain. Took a bit to recover after that one.

Accessory

3 Sets

  • 10/10 Weighted Step Downs (15″, 40# vest)
  • 20 Kossack Squats (alternating, 40# vest)

You don’t realize how much legs actually get used in that AMRAP. This was tough!

Midline

4 Rounds (30s work, 30s rest)

  • 30s V-ups
  • 30s Hollow Body Scissor Kicks
  • 30s Russian Twists
  • 30s Leg Lifts

I got this one out of a recent Kristi Eramo video and it was a dandy. No weight needed for those twists!

10 Max Sets

Another really solid sleep. My body feels good. Out in the garage at 4pm.

Warm-up

  • Steamboats
  • 20 PVC Passes
  • Dead Hang

Strength Conditioning

10 Rounds

  • MAX Strict Pull-ups
  • 2:00 cal Airdyne

Took 30-31 minutes, which is kind of what I expected after writing down my scores each round and transitioning between stations. Much harder than I expected though. I was doing 73+ RPM on the bike throughout. I got 15-11-10-9-8-8-8-7-7-7 pull-ups (90 total) and 54-55-55-56-57-58-58-58-58-60 calories (569 total). Can’t believe I didn’t look up my strict pull-up PR, because I matched it here with the 15 and know I could have squeezed out one or two more. Damn it!

Accessory

5 Sets

  • 10 Seated Horizontal Rows (40-40-50-75-75#)
  • 6/6 Kroc Rows (70#)

Fundraiser #3

I decided to only mow the front yard Sunday night, so I did the back yard on Monday night. Yesterday my body felt a little beat from the previous three days and my abs were already feeling those parallette shoot throughs. Glad it was a rest day. I did do my floor PT exercises and the core work.

McGill Big 3

  • 10-8-6 Curl-up
  • 10-8-6 Side Planks
  • 10-8-6 Bird Dogs

Out in the garage at 4pm today.

Warm-up

  • 10:00 Airdyne (199 cals, 5.03 km)
  • Monster Walks
  • 20 Monster Squats
  • 20 PVC Passes
  • 5 Sit-ups
  • 5 Deadlifts (35# DBs)
  • 5 Inchworms
  • 5 Deadlifts (50# DBs)

It’s been weeks since I’ve warmed up that much for anything.

Conditioning

Support Your Local Box Fundraiser #3

SITUP_Leah

  • 50 DB Deadlifts (50/35# DBs)
  • 50 AbMat Sit-ups (no arms)
  • 50 Step-ups (24/20″)
  • 50 Single Arm DB Thrusters (50/35#)

My back was blowing up a bit in the deadlifts since I haven’t done the movement at all in months. I took an extra breath or two every 10 reps or so, but never put the dumbbells down. This workout has an interesting standard for sit-ups I hadn’t seen before; I’ve always touched my hands behind my head. It was fine for 50 reps, but I could see it adding up over 100 or 150 reps without being able to throw your arms in to it. I did two sets of 10 each leg and then a set of five each with quick transitions. I switched arms every 5 thrusters and never stopped. Finished in 7:56. Most importantly, no back pain!

Strength

Superset these two movements. I thought I’d be more fatigued than I was from the thrusters, so was happy to get up to 145 while holding a solid back position.

Shoulder Press

  • 5×75#
  • 5×95
  • 5×115
  • 3×135
  • 3×137.5
  • 3×140
  • 3×142.5
  • 3×145

Front Raises

  • 8x8x10# plates

Lighter to Keep up the Intensity

Worked on my cable pulley system this morning and then workout at 1pm.

Warm-up

  • Monster Walks
  • 10 Bench Press (45#)
  • 10 Pendlay Rows (45#)
  • 10 Bench Press (95#)
  • 10 Pendlay Rows (75#)
  • 5 Bench Press (135#)
  • 5 Bench Press (165#)

Strength

4 Sets

  • 5 Bench Presses (185#)
  • 10 Pendlay Rows (95#)
  • 5 Bench Presses (185#)
  • 2:30 Rest

Conditioning

20-18-16-14-12-10-12-14-16-18-20

  • Plyo Lunges (30# DBs)

Done I Go You Go style. Repeat from two weeks ago, but I decided to decrease from the 35 pound dumbbells I had used since Brandi was decreasing from 20# DBs to a 12# vest. I got a lot of rest last time, so with less rest I wanted to be able to keep up my intensity. Turned out to the the perfect weight because I almost failed the final two sets and was able to stay unbroken. We finished in 8:37, which is over 4:30 quicker due to B speeding up her reps with the lighter loading (she eventually took the vest off).

Midline

5 Sets

  • 10 Parallette Shoot Throughs
  • 20 Alternating V-ups

We did this I Go You Go as well, but not for time. I could feel the shoot throughs right away in the first set! Will be feeling those for a few days.

Need to finish up my pulley system and then probably mow the lawn.

Smashed It

No issues with my back through the night or today. Started working on a cable pulley system for the garage gym. Then worked out at 4pm.

Warm-up

  • Monster Walks

Conditioning

Support Your Local Box Fundraiser #2

  • 100-75-50 DU
  • 21-15-9 Burpees

Wanted to redo this to see if I could get close to or sub 5:00. Only missed one double under the entire workout in the 75 with three to go. Crushed it with a 4:33 to smash the 5:23 from last Saturday! I was not expecting anything like that.

36:00 EMOM

  • 150m Run
  • 25 Banded Pushups (red, 10-5-5-5)
  • 24 Lateral Box Step Overs (14”)
  • 25/25m Suitcase Carry (70#)
  • 40s HS Hold (freestanding practice)
  • 40s Plank

Nothing crazy, but solid work. The handstand holding was not very good, but I kept trying.