Double Down

Stupid time change. I was very confused for a few seconds this morning when I woke up after 9, before I remembered the hour shift. Messed up my entire morning before the gym.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Snatch
    • 5×45#
    • 3×95#
    • 3×115#

Conditioning

“Isabel”

  • 30 Snatch (135#)

Started with 5 doubles before switching to singles. Finished in 2:26 for an 11 second PR! At 1:00 I had exactly 15 reps done, compared to 17 when I did Grace. I really like this new strategy I mentioned in my last Grace post. Here’s more detail I just shared on Facebook…

For the last year, I’ve been thinking about a strategy for Grace/Isabel that I never really see. Just about everyone comes out of the gate hot, trying to get as many unbroken reps as they can. I think this is a mistake for the majority of us and with my recent attempts at both Isabel and Grace, I did a little testing. Let me explain…

My previous Grace was 2:17, done with 10 unbroken and 20 singles. I got the PR of 2:04 by doing 3×5, 1×2, and 13 singles. For Isabel I went from doing 2×2 and 26 singles to 5×2 and 20 singles. Ok, but what’s the difference?

Dropping the bar, getting (or waiting for) the bounce to settle, and grabbing it again takes the most time in workouts like these. In the first Grace, I dropped the bar and had to reset 20 times, but in the retest there were only 16 bar drops, resulting in a gain of 13 seconds. Isabel bar drops went from 27 to 24, for an 11 second improvement.

Heart rate isn’t all that important in a 2-4 minute workout, but I think it can help a little, at least from the point of how you perceive your level of fatigue. Smaller sets should keep HR down some. I think not starting with a huge set (to near failure) can help a lot with muscle endurance over those 30 reps though. The last 5 reps are going to suck no matter what, but they can feel just a bit easier.

Sure I could have gotten the same 16 bar drop Grace by doing 14 unbroken then 16 singles, but I would have been a lot more tired going into the singles, resulting in less motivation to pick up the bar with each rep. Starting off Isabel with 6 unbroken to make it 24 drops doesn’t sound very fun at this point in my fitness for the same reasons.

Would this work for you?

If either workout takes you more than 5:00, you should use a lighter weight. Check your ego.

If your time is 3:30 or longer, I’d recommend sticking to singles but speed up how long it takes you to pick up the bar. Anyone can get a time of 3:00-3:30 by doing all singles if you pick the bar up as soon as it stops bouncing. You can’t step away from the bar though, you have to be ready to go and pick it up every single time.

If your time is close to that 3:00 mark and maybe even all the way down to 1:40 (??), simply try to decrease the number of times you drop the bar, but keep your sets manageable. Switch to singles when you have to.

The tricky part is making sure you don’t pick something you can’t maintain. For example, I bet I would improve my Grace time if I did 15 sets of 2, getting me to 14 drops instead of 16. Probably wouldn’t be a very good strategy though, because I doubt I’d be able to maintain sets of 2 for the entire workout. I’d end up doing singles and then wouldn’t actually decrease bar drops.

Make sense? If you try it out or have any questions let me know.

On Your Hands

3 Sets

  • MAX Handstand Hold (facing wall)
  • ~2:00 Rest

I should have checked my PR before. Made it 2:36, just 4 seconds short of my best. Then 1:40 and 1:00. Not easy after Isabel.

Conditioning II

3 Rounds

  • 30 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 60 Double Unders
  • 1:1 Rest

Times were 1:36, 1:47, and 1:47. Unbroken wall balls each time with unbroken dubs in round 1, 2 misses in round 2, and 1 miss in round 3. Was fun to do some big sets of wall balls. If not for the shoulders being pretty wrecked from the earlier stuff, using 30# would have been a good challenge.

I tried the false grip bar muscle-up and it wasn’t great. I definitely was sliding off the bar on the swing and had to do kind of a chicken-wing attempt, which I never do. Going to start working on that false grip strength on the bar with some drills because I think it will eliminate the feeling I’m ripping off my entire palm with a full grip on the bar when linking them together.

Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap before leaving.

Empty Sally

Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t close my hands! They were fine this morning though. Feel pretty good after 16.3. My low back was lit up last night but seems ok today.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bar Hang
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • Air Squats
  • 500m Row
  • 45# Bar warm-up

Weightlifting

Clean & Jerk

  • 3×95#
  • 3×135
  • 2×165
  • 2×195
  • 2×215
  • 2×235

No belt or lifting shoes. Pretty easy double.

Conditioning

“Bring Sally Up”

  • 45# Back Squats

Easy, but how did I almost finish with 135#?

21-15-9

  • Wall Balls (30#, 10′)
  • Russian Kettlebell Swings (70#)
  • Burpees

Kept every movement unbroken, but paced myself through the 21 burpees knowing there was a lot of work left. Finished in 6:47.

More Hanging

More goddamn gymnastics in 16.3! I thought for sure we’d see a break from it. I’m not surprised by the bar muscle-up being added this year though. Having to do single C2B in week one used up a lot of my time in the workout, but bar muscle-ups singles may pace me out better over the course of this one. Trying to make the best of my injury limitation. 🙂 If I average 30 seconds on snatches and 30 seconds on bar muscle-ups (plus transition time), 6 rounds seems like a good goal and 7 being something I’d be thrilled with. I’m just not sure how the muscle-ups are going to feel on my shoulder. I’ve only done 1 in the last 2-3 months.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • GHD Heel Drives
  • Bar Taps
  • 5 Muscle Snatch (45#)
  • 3 Power Snatch (75#)

I did a couple of muscle-ups trying to see if I could string them together. I think I could have gotten through it, but why risk it and I’m pretty sure I would have ripped by the end even with the gymnastics grips on. Once this shoulder heals I need to figure out what to do with my grip because I can feel it starting to tear when I swing down, even on a first set.

CrossFit Open 16.3

7:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Power Snatches (75#)
  • 3 Bar Muscle-ups

16-3-splitsIt went really well with the singles. Much better than expected. I was able to drop straight down from the top so didn’t have to move much. I had a nice steady pace on the snatches with no problem going unbroken every round. I took a split second pause at the top and opened up my grip on every rep. That worked so well and my grip was fine throughout, where the other guys’ grips were smoked. I barely had enough energy left to just fly on that final set of snatches. Made it through 6 rounds plus 8 snatches with a tiebreaker of 6:39. Happy. 🙂

With the exception of round 1 my splits were a lot more consistent than I expected. Round 1 is going to be lower, since you don’t have a transition from the the top of the last bar muscle-up, to drop, and get to your barbell. Measured in seconds my rounds were 52-66-68-73-70-70, so only one was over the 70 second average needed to get 6 rounds and, other than the first, they varied by only 7 seconds. That might be the best pacing I’ve ever done.

We had a great atmosphere in the gym with Jason, Bryan, and I battling it out. I thought Bryan had lapped me because he was doing all of his muscle-ups unbroken, but I guess he was just a bit ahead of me. I almost caught him on my final sprint, but was 1 rep shy. Then we got to see Michelle and Jess get their first muscle-ups, with it finally clicking for Michelle and then she got 4 more in the workout. Probably the funnest Open workout I’ve been a part of. This will be a neat one to retest once my shoulder is better.

 

On to next week…

 

Bring It Castro!

Went to the Chiropractor at 5 and then 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 10 Good Mornings (35# KB)
  • 10/10 Around the head (35# KB)
  • 5 Good Mornings (35# KB)
  • 5/5 Around the head (35# KB)

Strength – Deadlift

  • 5×45#
  • 5×155
  • 5×225
  • 5x5x275

Definitely wasn’t going to approach anything close to a max lift during the Open. This was really easy.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 10 Deadlifts (115#)
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 20 Double Unders

Only tripped once in the 2nd round after 8 reps. I think I went 7 rounds plus 4 deadlifts. I was planning to stay after class to get in some GHDs, but with this being programmed with sit-ups, it was nice to be able to substitute and kill 2 birds with one stone. This felt really good. I would be pretty happy if Castro repeated 13.2 for this next Open workout (with step-ups allowed again).

Midline & Getting Inverted

4 Sets

  • 15 Ball Slams (30#)
  • 3 Wall Walks

Little challenging with how humid it is with the huge temperature shift to the 60s. It was like someone hosed down the walls. My shoes were even slipping all over on the matting in the gym. Did Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap and got out of there. Rest up and watch the 16.3 announcement tomorrow.

Work Up Quick

Got to the gym around 5. Figured it would be a good idea to get in some heavy snatches in case some sort of max is coming in the Open.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Snatch Warm-up Complex (45#)
  • Pass-thrus

Snatch

  • 3x40kg
  • 3×50
  • 60
  • 63
  • 66
  • 69
  • 72
  • 75
  • 78
  • 81 (missed first attempt)
  • 83
  • 87 (missed first attempt)
  • 90

Starting at 60, Bryan and I went back and forth without much rest other than changing the plates. Worked up in less than 20 minutes because I wanted to do the 5:30 class. Felt like the make at 90 was a good place to stop. Was rusty for sure, so need to get these in more often. I much prefer lifting like this though instead of taking 40-50 minutes.

Strength – Shoulder Press

Class was programmed as 3 rounds of these sets:

  • 3 @ 85%
  • 2 @ 90%
  • 1 @ 95%

I based mine off what my max should be (180#) after a recent triple with 170#.

  • 6×45#
  • 3×95
  • 3×115
  • 3×145
  • 3 Waves
    • 3×155
    • 2×162.5
    • 1×170

I was questioning myself during the first wave, but they actually got easier the next two times through.

Conditioning

“Wall Ball Kalsu”

  • 100 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 5 Burpees EMOM (Starting at 1:00, so first minute is free)

I don’t like it this way because it doesn’t read correctly and it’s not how you do Kalsu. 🙂 You should start with the burpees as soon as you start the clock. But it’s good to vary things, right? I’ve done it the proper way, in 5:54, a year ago. Today the wall balls felt really light and I was getting in a lot more each minute than I did the other time. Started with 30, then 3 sets of 18, and a final set of 16 to finish in 4:50. I was kind of mad I dropped the wall ball early in the first 2 sets of 18 too, with about 6 seconds left. I could have gotten in 2 more each of those sets.

Update: I found where we did it this same way in October and it took exactly 5:00 then. I’ll take a 10 second improvement! 😀

Midline

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s Weighted Plank (45#)
  • 10s Rest

This was the worst part of the workout! I wanted to quit after round 4, but made it all the way through them.

Rotation of Five

Pretty sore around my scaps and tight in the back of my legs. Garage time at noon. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

30:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 8 Back Squats (135#)
  • 30s Hollow Hold
  • 10 cal Ski Erg
  • 10 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 20 DB Curls (15#)

Worked up a little sweat and got the heart rate up with the ski erg and box jumps being back-to-back. Did Crossover Symmetry Plyo and was in and out in less than an hour.

Every 80

Was at the gym early to judge a 16.2. Feeling rested.

Warm-up

  • Bottom squat hold
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Thrusters (45#)

Go Fast

Every 1:20 – 10 Sets

  • 6 Thrusters (95#)
  • 6 Burpees over the Bar

Didn’t look at the clock until the last set or two. At that point it was taking 24-25 seconds. Smacked myself in the head puling the bar down to the front rack in one of the early sets. No blood, but it is swollen with a little bump there.

Strength/Skill

10:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 8 Weighted Pistols (26# KB)
  • 12 T2B

The pistols weren’t easy after 60 thrusters. Did all 5 sets of toes to bar unbroken.

4 Rounds

  • 30s Pike HSPU (30″ box)
  • 30s Rest
  • 30s DU
  • 30s Rest

Those handstand push-ups were harder than I expected. Got 12 for 2 rounds and 10 for 2. Went unbroken on dubs each round for 53-55-55-56.

Gymnastics

5 Sets

  • 15 Stalder Leg Lifts (1×11″, 4×13″)
  • 5 Ring Swings

That extra increase really made the lifts a lot harder.

Recovering

Was feeling out of it last night and stayed up really late watching House of Cards, so wasn’t going to class. Hit the garage around 3. Simple work. Warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

8 Sets

  • 30s Handstand Hold
  • 30s Rest

Was starting to feel the burn in round 5, which is how many I’ve been doing. Those extra three were rough. I’m trying to get up 1-3″ away from the wall.

20:00 Air Dyne (AD2)

Kept the RPM at about 62-63 and went 6.15 miles.

Finished up with Crossover Symmetry Iron Scap.

During the Duke-UNC game I did 10 unbroken sets of 20 push-ups during TV timeouts and halftime. Switched up hand positions on a few sets.

CrossFit Open 16.2

Everyone was surprised how sore our upper backs were from the snatch and overhead squat workout Wednesday. I thought my quads might be really sore due to how much they were burning through the second half of that workout.

Got to the gym around 5 to get warmed up. Was excited for this one after watching the announcement last night.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 2×10 Heel Drives
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Cleans
    • 3×45#
    • 3×95
    • 3×135
    • 2×185
    • 2×205

CrossFit Games Open Workout 16.2

  • Beginning on a 4 minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 15 Squat Cleans, 135 / 85 lb.
  • If completed before 4 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 13 Squat Cleans, 185 / 115 lb.
  • If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 11 Squat Cleans, 225 / 145 lb.
  • If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 9 Squat Cleans, 275 / 175 lb.
  • If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
    • 25 T2B
    • 50 DU
    • 7 Squat Cleans, 315 / 205 lb.
  • Stop at 20 minutes.

A couple of keys to remember for scoring:

  • When finishing each set of double unders, mark the time on the clock, which is used as a tiebreaker.
  • If you happen to be one of the small percentage of people in the world that can finish everything, your score is your total time. Otherwise, score is number of reps completed for the rest of us mortals.

 

OMG! Got done with round 1 at about 3:00. Went 11-8-6 T2B, unbroken DU, and fast clean singles. Started 5-5 and then I don’t even know what after that. Some 3s and 4s I think. Tripped once or twice on DU. Pretty quick on the single cleans again. I was somewhere under a minute left I think, so that gave me 5:00 to work on round 3. At this point I couldn’t breathe. I jumped up on the bar and holy fuck! I did a lot of singles with way too long of breaks. I was shot. Managed to get in some triples at the end. Those T2B took me forever. Had about a minute left for the DU and finished with 6 seconds on the clock (11:54 tiebreak). Didn’t even touch 225#. I really wanted to get at least one because it would have been a nice jump on the leaderboard over all the tiebreaks that couldn’t lift that weight. No way in hell I’m doing it again though. I’d rather do 16.1 over.

I was absolutely wrecked! Every time I got up and walked around I got light-headed for the next hour.

Oh My Quads

Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • PVC Good Mornings

Strength – Deadlifts

  • 7×45#
  • 7×155
  • 7×225
  • 7×275
  • 7×305
  • 2x7x325

Heavy enough after all of the shoveling. No need to push it and get hurt during the Open.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 5 Evil wheels
  • 5 Ring Swings

It’s been awhile since I’ve done the evils so expect to be sore the next couple of days.

Conditioning

9:00 AMRAP

  • 3 Power Snatches (95#)
  • 6 Overhead Squats (95#)
  • 9 Step-ups (24″)

Loved it! Did all step-ups instead of box jumps and holy hell did that turn into a quad burn after the OHS. First round was done in about 45 seconds and settled in to a steady 1:00 pace after about 3 rounds I think. Finished exactly 9 rounds but only had about 2 seconds so didn’t try to pick up the bar. Was a good one not having to rest at any point and able to keep moving.

Now that scoring is closed on 16.1, I can see my score is not as bad worldwide as my performance on 15.2 was last year, which I still overcame it to have my best overall percentile placing ever. Kind of a relief that I should be able to make a comeback on the leaderboard, but frustrating that having to do single pull-ups held back my score so much. I don’t usually like to say this, but I’m confident I would have been close to 8 rounds instead of only 7+1. Especially since I’ve put in a lot of work over the last 4-5 months on improving my capacity. In day-to-day WODs at the gym Bryan and I have been neck and neck, trading wins, for the last month or two, where he was handily beating me before. Castro, please bring us pistols this year!