Bro!

Feeling a bit beat up today and originally planned a rest day, but switching it up to try to get on a schedule with Bryan.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 6×95
  • 6×135
  • 3×185
  • 3×205
  • 3×225
  • 3x3x235

Working sets at 85%. Wasn’t sure how it would go. Definitely felt awkward with so much weight on the bar after not having done much benching in a long time. Spotters said it looked easy though.

Dumbbell Bench Press

15 reps with 40# DBs. Yep, only one set. That’s the heaviest we have at the gym.

Dumbbell Fly

  • 15 – 20# DBs
  • 2×15 – 30# DBs

Strict Ring Dips

3×12 – all unbroken!

Skull Crushers

  • 12 – 20# DBs
  • 12 – 30# DBs

Was not pretty with the 30s. Felt like we should have had a wall of mirrors at the gym for this session!

Conditioning

5-10-15-20

  • Push Press (95#)
  • T2B

Have I not done enough push presses and gymnastics since Saturday? Unbroken on the first 3 sets and was hoping I’d be able to do the 20 but no way; went 12-8. Went 5 and 10 unbroken with toes to bar, then 6-5-4, and 6-5 before I hit my wall and had to finish with singles. Finished in 5:01.

Hybrid WOD

Starting some Hybrid Performance Method programming with Bryan and Weston. Figured I’d jump in with them and give my routine some structure.

Power Clean + 5 Push Press

  • 45#
  • 95
  • 135
  • 165
  • 185
  • 205
  • 225

Big PR on the push press! I’ve done 198 for 5 and 205 for 6 before. In the 2nd or 3rd rep of the final set I could feel myself over-extending so I braced hard and kept much better positions to finish the set. Barely. I could feel my back tight on the left side for the rest of the workout, but not a painful tightness, which is good.

Snatch Pull

  • 3×135#
  • 3×185
  • 2×205
  • 2x1x225
  • 2x1x235
  • 1×245

Odd doing singles, but was able to go heavy. Didn’t use straps at all.

Back Squat

  • 6×135#
  • 6×205
  • 6×235
  • 3x6x265

The working sets were at 70%, which felt good.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 15 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 5 Muscle-ups
  • 15 Hang Power Cleans (135#)

Scaled down the wall balls from 25# since we don’t have that. Tried slam balls but the ones we have for that weight don’t bounce off the wall at all. Was not going RX+ with 30#. I also dropped the muscle-ups down from 7 to keep intensity up and be closer to Bryan’s time.

I went 3-2 on each set of muscle-ups and 6-5-4 on the cleans. Finished in 9:24 about 30 seconds behind Bryan so scaling was the right thing to do. I really need to start pushing sets more instead of playing so safe all the time. Should have gone unbroken on the first set of muscle-ups and tried to do the cleans in 2 sets each time.

Update: None of us realized the cleans were 135/195#, probably because we are so used to seeing 135/95 our eyes didn’t pick up the difference. Looking at the other days for the week it seems these metcons are programming for Regional level athletes, which is definitely not us. Will be scaling back a lot or just sticking to the women’s weights. Using 70% of the assigned men’s Rx seems appropriate.

“Danny”

Didn’t eat the breakfast I wanted to and it hurt me in today’s workout. Went in at 11:30 and we had a big group today, like old times! Everyone was kind of doing different things to get going. I warmed up with a little bottom squat hold and 10 empty bar thrusters.

Thruster Attack Week 9 Workout 1

  • 3 Cycles
    • 3 Rounds
      • 20s Thrusters(75#)
      • 10s Rest
    • 30s Rest

Yuck! Still stuck to all sets of 9. Was really feeling this one during the long break before we started the workout.

Conditioning

“Danny” – 20:00 AMRAP

  • 30 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 20 Push Press (115#)
  • 30 Pull-ups

I did step-ups right from the start. First round I did 8 and then 7 leading with each leg but the rest of the way I switched legs every 5 reps. Push press felt good even after the thrusters, probably due to all of the thrusters building up my strength endurance. Was able to go 11-9 each round. I did all sets of 5 on the pull-ups. My biggest issue was lungs in this one. Taking longer breaks than I should have needed. Made it through 3 rounds, the step-ups, and 16 (11-5) of the push presses.

Open & Close

I was tired yesterday so took a complete rest day instead of hopping on the Air Dyne for active recovery. Planned to go to the 10am class this morning but didn’t wake up until 9:10. Procrastinated most of the day, but got out in the garage after 5pm. At least all that waiting with the heat on let the garage get up to 55°.

Warm-up

5:00 Ski Erg (1,057m)

Gymnastics

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 7 Strict Ring Dips
  • 12 Pistols

No issues on either. Did 10×45# and 5×135 deadlifts to get ready for the metcon.

Conditioning

Found this one in the Fitness Level Workouts on BTWB when looking for something to do with toes to bars.

5 Rounds

  • 15 DL (185#)
  • 15 T2B

My goal was some bigger sets on the toes to bars today and the hopefully hang on. I went 8-7 on every set of deadlifts, with too much rest in between sets. Wore the belt. I was able to stick with 8-7 T2B for 3 rounds. At that point I was hoping to switch to 3×5. Well, I made it through one 5, then hit the wall after 4. All the rest singles in that set and for the entire final set. Finished in 11:36.

Tried something new and learned some lessons about what I can do. Doesn’t help that these were two very similar hinging movements on the hips, which I use a lot on my T2B.

Four More

My shins are still a little tight from Sunday’s broad jumps. Out in the garage some time after 4. My garage temperature sensor project is working pretty well. Have it feeding into my Home Assistant setup and mapping out an enclosure to then keep it permanently in the garage. It got up to 50° in there for me today.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Ski Erg (680m)

Gymnastics Strength

5 Sets

  • 5 Strict Chin-ups

Got thrusters ready by doing 7 reps with 45-65-85#.

Thruster Attack Week 8 Workout 2

E2M – 5 sets

  • 14 Thrusters (105#)

Wore lifting shoes and a belt today since my back has been tight and I could feel it throughout the day today. In my notes I put “try 6 sets?” and probably could have done it, but 70 reps was enough. Nothing was really burning until my legs started to give in the finally 5 or 6 reps.

Four more thruster workouts!

Eights

Dragging a little today after being up until almost 3am. Went to the 5:30 class to get out of the house.

Warm-up: 3 Sets

  • PVC Triangle Stretch
  • 5 False Grip Ring Rows (legs under me)
  • 10 Mountain Climbers
  • Pigeon Stretch

Strength – OHS

  • 6×45#
  • 6×75
  • 4×95
  • 4×115
  • 3×135
  • 3×155
  • 2×175
  • 2×195

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 8 Burpees
  • 8 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 8 C2B Pull-ups

Went 4-4 on the chest to bar pull-ups, but unbroken on the rest. Wall balls were like a rest and burpees were slow throughout. Tried to push at the end. Finished 5 rounds plus 6 burpees.

Midline

5 Sets

  • 15 Sit-ups
  • 30s Plank

Squats on Squats

Needed the rest day yesterday and got a bunch of stuff done around the house on my last day of break. Went to the 6:30 class but squatted instead of doing shoulder press.

Strength – Back Squat

  • 10x20kg
  • 5×60
  • 5×80
  • 5×90
  • 5×100
  • 5×110
  • 5×120
  • 5×130

Not real great on the back between sets. I wore Nanos but used the belt for 100+.

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 5 Front Squats (60kg)
  • 5 Pull-ups
  • 5 Hang Power Cleans (60kg)
  • 10 Hand Release Push-ups
  • 5 Push Jerks (60kg)
  • 15 Air Squats

Stuck with kilos since I had them on a bar for the squats already. Unbroken on everything. Going from air squats into front squats was teh suck! Push-ups were the most annoying part of the workout. Finished in 9:42.

Midline

3 Sets

  • 10/10 Side Bends (53# KB)

When the KB was in my left hand I could feel a tug on my back.

Hello 2017

Happy New Year!

I took a lot more rest days in 2016, even during the 3 months sabbatical from work. Each blue square on the calendar below means I worked out that day.

unleaded-2016-posting-calendar.png

Compare to the 2015 calendar and it’s quite a different story. Last year I went nearly 3 months straight without taking a complete rest day! I was doing active recovery once or twice a week though. In the final two months of 2016 I took a step back and I think it was good. It’s easy for my addictive traits to come out and put too much into my workouts, when it should be about staying healthy and having fun. Here’s to continuing that balance in 2017.

When I was making Kodiak Cakes for breakfast I got a text asking me to workout. I was planning to hit my thrusters and maybe some Ski intervals in the garage, so that sounded like a better plan. Headed to the gym at 2 and there ended up being a whole crew there. Warmed up with some bottom squat hold and 6 thrusters with 45#.

Thruster Attack Week 8 Workout 1

  • 4 Cycles
    • 3 rounds
      • 20s Thrusters (65#)
      • 10s Rest
    • 30s Rest

I stuck with 9 reps per round like I’ve been doing. Felt better than last week even though it was the same total number of rounds and reps, with less rest time. I swear by this program.

Partner Workout

25:00 AMRAP

  • 5 Broad Jump
  • 20 Bicycle Crunches or Hollow Rocks (alt each round)
  • 10 Russian KBS (70#)
  • 5 Push-up + Row + Row (40# DBs)

Do a round and then rest while your partner goes. I made it through 10 times and Jason had 3 or 4 reps left in his 10th. Was fun to throw together some things we don’t do very often. Good sweat to kick off 2017.

Fifteens

Was thinking about doing “Linda” to finish out the year just like in 2015, but we weren’t up for it today and my back has been a little rough this week so would not have been the best idea. I actually didn’t even get out of bed until almost 10:30. I can’t remember the last time I was in bed past 10. Worked out with Bryan and Doug at noon. Did some bottom squat holds and shoulder stretching to warm-up.

Gymnasty

15:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 5 Strict Pull-ups
  • 7 Strict Ring Dips
  • 10 Pistols

Been a long time since doing a pistol. Always rough to get the feel for them again but then after 10 reps or so it comes back.

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

  • 20 T2B
  • 10 Bar-facing Burpees
  • 20 Hang Power Snatches (75#)
  • 10 Step-ups (24″)

Went much smoother than we expected. I surprised myself by being able to stick to sets of 4 toes to bars the entire way. Went 8-6-6 on the snatches and should have tried 11-9 or something like that. I figured I’d end up doing step-ups instead of box jumps and when I got to that movement in the first round it was an easy decision. Finished 3 rounds plus the T2B and burpees. Might have been able to get in one snatch, but collapsing to the ground felt like a better idea.

Feels good to be back into some kind of consistency. I think I’m going to join Bryan on the Hybrid Performance WOD program starting this week, though still finish out these last few weeks of the Thruster Attack.