Knee is Almost Ready

Thought about resting, but got some energy in the afternoon, so went in to open gym. Knee keeps improving. Today I can pretty much come down the stairs like a normal human being. Hopefully Sunday night or Monday I can start doing some squats and OLY again.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne

Seated DB Shoulder Press

  • 10 x 20# DBs + 20s Hold
  • 10 x 25# DBs + 20s Hold
  • 10 x 30# DBs + 20s Hold
  • 10 x 35# DBs + 20s Hold
  • 5 x 40# DBs + 20s Hold
  • 5 x 45# DBs + 20s Hold
  • 5 x 45# DBs + 20s Hold
  • 3 x 60# DBs + 15s Hold

WOD

5,000m Row

Rowed a 22 second PR with a 19:34. Started to hit the wall half way through.

20131025-191917.jpg

When the Air Dyne is Considered Rest…

The 10am show again, with Kevin today. Knee is improving. Going up the stairs without a problem, but still favoring it on the way down. Day by day.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne

Strength

Bench Press

Used the slingshot for all sets after 95#, since it worked really well the last time. Chest is pretty sore from the DB bench the other day and 250 push-ups over the last 3 days.

  • 10 x 45#
  • 5 x 95#
  • 5 x 135#
  • 5 x 155#
  • 5 x 165#
  • 5 x 175#
  • 5 x 180#
  • 5 x 185#
  • 5 x 190#
  • 5 x 195#
  • 5 x 200#
  • 5 x 205#
  • 5 x 210#
  • 5 x 215#
  • 5 x 220#

Tried to keep rest periods short, around 60s most of the time. That’s 20# more for 5 reps than just a few weeks ago, although last time I did do a whole bunch of sets of 8 up to 175#. But, shit, my 1RM unassisted is only 240#. Finally making bench progress!

Seated Sumo Deadlifts

Based on this video from Louie Simmons.

  • 2 Seated Pulls
  • 1 Seated Pull with a 2s pause and then explosively stand up

I did 95#, 135#, 2 sets with 185#, and 2 sets with 215#. Pretty weird movement.

Knocked out 3 sets of 10 back squats with the empty 45# bar. Felt pretty good.

WOD

3 Rounds

  • 20 Air Dyne calories
  • 15 C2B Pull-ups
  • 30 Sit-ups

The AD was the easiest part! Finished in 10:47. C2B were 5-4-3-3 in the first round and then 5×3 the last 2 rounds. Need to figure out butterfly C2B before the 2014 Open.

A Main Site WOD

In at 10 with Matt again. Walking up/down stairs is feeling better today.

Warm-up

500m Row

Strength

  • 3 Shoulder Presses at 30X1 tempo
  • 10/10 KB Rows on Bench

45-95-115-120-125-130-135 for the shoulder presses and 48-48-53-62-62-71 for the rows.

3 Rounds

  • 10 Back Squats w/ empty 45# bar
  • 30s Plank

Just a little something to get the knee moving.

WOD

This gem is today’s crossfit.com WOD. Might be the first time I’ve ever used one on the scheduled day.

15:00 AMRAP

  • 250m Row
  • 25 C2D Push-ups

Lost about 10-15 seconds in the middle due to weird bump noises from the rower, which I think just ended up being dirt on the track. Did 6 rounds plus 126m. All sets of push-ups were 5 or more.

Finisher

Tabata

  • 6 rounds of Hollow Rocks
  • 2 rounds of Supermans

I was already having to break in the 5th and 6th rounds of hollow rocks, so switched to supermans to finish it out. The hollow rocks were horrible!

Using Dumbbells for a Weak Right Arm

Went in to Survival Fitness at 10 to train with Matt. Not really any improvement on the knee.

Warm-up

5:00 Air Dyne

DB Bench Press

  • 10 x 20# DBs + 20s Static Hold
  • 10 x 25# DBs + 20s Static Hold
  • 10 x 30# DBs + 20s Static Hold
  • 10 x 35# DBs + 20s Static Hold
  • 10 x 40# DBs + 20s Static Hold
  • 3 x 10 x 45# DBs + 20s Static Hold

Trying to even out that right arm weakness. Felt pretty good.

Grabbed a 10# plate and did 2 sets of 10 second OH hold + 10 OH shrugs.

Gymnastics

20:00 EMOM

  • Odds: 10 T2B
  • Evens: 5 Strict Ring Dips + 5 C2D Push-ups

Did the first 7 rounds of T2B unbroken, then 6-4, 7-3, 7-1-2. When I hit the wall with my hip action, getting even 2 in a row is a struggle, but that wall is taking longer to reach. All dips and push-ups were unbroken, but tough in the last 2 rounds.

Conditioning

E90S for 6 rounds

  • ~40m Sled Drag (25# sled + 225#)

These were ok on the knee.

Fucked Up Knee

Right knee is not good. It was rough last night after snatching. Wrapped it in an ace bandage most of the day and not going to do any squats, olympic lifts, or standing pressing movements for a few days at least. I’m a little scared to be honest. Have never felt something like this in the knee. Hopefully it’s just pressure.

Out in the garage tonight by myself.

Warm-up

5:00 Air Dyne

Strength

  • 5 Seated Good Mornings (45-95-135-155-165-175-185)
  • 5 Seated DB Shoulder Presses + 20 second OH hold (20-25-30-35-40-45-50 DBs)

Back and forth between the 2. The overhead hold really sucked at 40# and above.

Gymnastics

5 Rounds

  • 10 Pull-ups
  • 10 C2D Push-ups
  • 10 Sit-ups
  • 30s Rest

Did everything unbroken and was done in under 7:00, counting the 4 rest periods.

WOD

5 rounds

  • 30s Air Dyne @ 100%
  • 3:00 Rest

I’m calling this one “Air Dyne Double Hell”. On the AD2 my calories were 34-35-38-38-41. All of the intervals I’ve been doing must be working because I was able to sustain pace last night in the 1k rows and pushed the pedal to the metal with these. Who says you need to metcon your face off or do anything longer than 10 minutes? 😉

Did another slow 5:00 on the Air Dyne.

Finally!!

Over at Kevin’s tonight for a few hours.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Air Dyne
  • PVC Pass-thrus
  • PVC Snatch Positions
  • 45# Snatch Positions
  • 45# Hang Snatches standing on plywood with toes hanging off

Snatches

  • 2 @ 95#
  • 115#
  • 135#
  • 145#
  • 155#
  • 165#
  • 175#
  • 185#
  • 6 misses @ 190# (PR attempts)

I was under every single attempt at 190#, so that was good. Not tight enough though and bottoming out too fast after receiving the bar just above parallel. First attempt was the best and I had the bar way back in position, but wasn’t ready for it. Encouraged that I didn’t bail on any attempt and pulled under every single one. Here’s the first attempt…

Bench Press

  • 8 @ 45#
  • 5 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 185#
  • 2 @ 205#
  • 1 @ 215#
  • 1 @ 225#
  • 1 @ 235# (PR match)
  • 1 @ 240# (PR)
  • 10 @ 185# (activation set)
  • 4 x 3 @ 185# (Cluster sets w/ only 30s rest)

Last November I did 235# and haven’t done it since. Been pissing me off for a long time, so it was good to finally break through that barrier. I still have the weak right arm problem otherwise I’d be able to go even higher. I guess I need to do dumbbell bench pressing a lot.

WOD

4 x 1,000m Row (I go, you go)

I was shooting to keep just under a 1:50/500m pace and was successful. Rowed 3:38 the first 3 rounds and then a 3:37.

Trying to Keep the Snatch Close

Had a “rest” day yesterday, but spent 2.5 hours climbing ropes and shit at the Adventure Park in Frakenmuth last night. So much fun and a lot of stabilizer muscles got worked, especially in the shoulders. Worked out by myself in the garage tonight.

Warm-up

5:00 Air Dyne

OLY

  • 4 x 3 x 75# Hang Snatch High Pulls
  • PVC Hang Snatch High Pulls and Hang Power Snatches
  • 2 x 3 x 75# Muscle Snatch
  • 4 x 3 x 95# Power Snatch

I was trying to work on keeping the bar close to my body on the 2nd pull and making sure to keep pulling with the arms. Results were mixed. I felt like it was damn close, but video showed the bar was still coming outside the starting line from where it was on the floor, often by quite a bit. It did seem to be getting back into a good position better though.

Strength & Gymnastics

5 Rounds

  • MAX Pull-ups
  • 5 Deadlifts (315#)
  • 2:00 Rest

I started out wearing the gymnastics grips, but they always seem to bunch up on my under the fingers and start to hurt like a bitch. They also didn’t work too well with the deadlifts. I took them off after the second round. The grips limited my pull-ups in the first two rounds, otherwise I would have had a new streak PR no problem. I got 16-11-13-12-11 pull-ups.

Finisher

Jumped back on the Air Dyne for 10 minutes at a pace faster than warm-ups. 242 calories and 5.52 km.

5 Days of Squats

Woke up feeling pretty good. Trained at 10am.

Warm-up

Easy 500m Row

OLY – Snatches

  • 45# Position Work
  • 2 x 2 @ 95#
  • 2 @ 135#
  • E30S 2:00 – 1 @ 155#
  • 1 @ 155# (forgot to load more weight)
  • 6 x 1 @ 165#

All power snatches again, working on receiving in higher positions. Took some videos and by correcting my setup, the first pull pretty much automatically fixed as a result. No more looping around the knees. Did have some big lopping from the hips to the top though, which will need to be fixed.

Now it’s time to start working on the bar moving more vertical and then back at the top. Here’s my bar path from the best lift of the day.

Power Snatch - 165# Bar Path

With the first pull bar path corrected, if I can improve the rest of the bar path, I think I’ll be headed for some more PRs.

Front Squats

  • 5 @ 135#
  • 3 @ 185#
  • 3 @ 205#
  • 3 @ 225#
  • 3 @ 235#
  • 3 @ 245#
  • 3 @ 255#
  • 3 @ 265#
  • 3 @ 275# (matches 3RM PR)
  • 2 @ 285# (tried for 3, but got stuck part way up)
  • 1 @ 295#

The goal was to do triples as long as possible, then doubles, and then singles. Mostly for volume. Not much room for the doubles and triples so close to 1RM though. Knees are sore from doing heavy squats 5 days in a row. Probably no squatting until Monday to give it a rest.

A Solid Bro Session

10am bro session with Kevin and Matt. I got a little more sleep last night, so feeling good.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne

OLY

Power Clean warm-up

  • 2 x 2 x 135#
  • 2 x 155#
  • 2 x 175#
  • 2 x 205#

10:00 EMOM

  • 225# Clean

We did a Conga line, but waiting to start the next round on the minute. I did all squat cleans until the last one where I did a power clean. Had one miss around 3 or 4 when the bar was way too far forward, but picked the bar right back up and got it. Tried to remember to keep over the bar in my setup.

Strength

Back Squats

  • 5 x 135#
  • 5 x 225#
  • 2 x 255#
  • 2 x 285#
  • 1 x 305#
  • 1 x 325#
  • 1 x 340# (PR)

The set of 135# never felt so easy and smooth. Cleans were an awesome warm-up. PR is up 5# from the last one a month ago.

WOD

10 Rounds each, alternating people through

  • 3 Deadlifts (175#)
  • 2 Hang Power Cleans (175#)
  • 1 Push Jerk (175#)

Kevin stopped after 5 rounds so then it was just Matt and I going back and forth the 2nd half. Cleans got tough at the end.

Finisher

5 Rounds

  • 50′ High Prowler Sprint (70# sled + 90#)
  • 50′ Low Prowler Sprint (70# sled + 90#)
  • Rest while partner goes

Matt and I did this and I have a little “Fran lung” from it. The last two rounds were pretty horrible.

Did a slow 10:00 on the Air Dyne to flush everything out and cool down.

Out of Gas

In at 10am this morning, but no gas in the tank. Need to start getting more sleep again and eating more. Kevin was out of it too, so we took it easy.

Warm-up

3:00 Air Dyne

OLY

Snatch Work

  • 45# Position Work
  • 65# Position Work
  • 75# Position Work
  • 2 x 2 x Power Snatch + OHS
  • 1 Power Snatch E30S 4:00 (135#)

During the position work Kevin noticed I was behind the bar in my setup and helped fix me. Really different feel in my hamstrings, but it was almost automatic to bring the bar in instead of looping around the knees like I’ve been doing. The 135# power snatches felt ok, but not a whole lot of pop today. Getting used to the corrected start position felt weird too.

Strength

Pendlay Rows

  • 15 x 105#
  • 15 x 125#
  • 15 x 135#

Front Squats

  • 5 x 135#
  • 5 x 185#
  • 3 x 5 x 205#

WOD

10:00 Row

Averaged a 2:09/500m pace and kept strokes at 18-20/minute.